Two microbiologists who led the lab investigation of E. coli O157:H7 in Nestle cookie dough say they found evidence that the contaminated product didn’t come from just one batch.
“We found it was produced over several months,” Gerry Gomez and Mike Humphrys wrote Wednesday in the Public Health Matters blog of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
They said the CDC’s Enteric Disease Lab Branch worked with 13 other labs around the country to test cookie dough from 164 different packages. The contaminated product “didn’t come from only one batch,” they wrote.
Gomez and Humphrys said they were as surprised as anyone to see the pathogen in refrigerated, pre-packaged cookie dough. So often it is found in ground beef, field-grown produce, unpasteurized apple cider or some other food.
The Nestle’ Tollhouse cookie dough outbreak of 2009 peaked in May and June. By the end of July, the outbreak had reached 80 people in 31 states. Thirty-five of the victims spent time in a hospital, including 10 who contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).
Pritzker Olsen attorneys are currently representing victims of E. coli O157:H7 and HUS. To talk to a lawyer about a Nestle E. coli lawsuit, call us at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free). To receive a free case consultation, please submit a form via the Internet.
