Cookie dough samples from plant in Danville, VA confirmed to be contaminated with E. Coli

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Uh-oh.. things aren’t looking good for Nestle. It looks like the FDA found E. Coli in a sample of cookie dough in a Nestle USA manufacturing facility in Danville, VA (same facility I wrote about earlier) yesterday. They’re doing more tests to figure out how the bacteria got into the dough in the first place. Note: the actual factory is clean — meaning the contaminant probably came from outside sources directly in contact with the dough — ie, the ingredients. It’s interesting because the biggest worry regarding raw cookie dough is salmonella from the uncooked eggs; this E. Coli thing is new. According to this article, “none of the main ingredients in the dough – such as butter, chocolate, flour, milk or eggs – is known to host E.coli 0157: H7.” My theory? A factory worker in the plant that produces the infected ingredient went to the bathroom and didn’t wash his / her hands. I also heard that all food production facilities don’t have to be extremely clean; in other words they’ll pass inspections if they have a few bugs. Could a bug have left its infected feces on one of the machines? Do bugs carry E. Coli or is that just a human / cattle thing? Not sure how that works… Also worrisome is the fact that the plants that deliver the cookie dough ingredients probably also deliver the same ingredients to other food manufacturers.

The press release states:

SOLON, Ohio, June 29, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Nestle USA’s Baking Division was informed today by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it has found and confirmed evidence of E. coli 0157:H7 in a retained production sample of 16.5 oz. Nestle Toll House refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough bar. The product has a day code of 9041 and a “Best before 10 JUN 2009″ notation.

For the official full-length press release: http://www.verybestbaking.com/products/tollhouse/dough/recall-06292009.pdf

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