Nestle Toll House cookie dough in the clear… kind of

Chloe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:16:48 +0000

One of my favorite news sites, CNN, has reported that the FDA’s investigation into Nestle Toll House’s cookie dough E. coli contamination has hit a dead end. Apparently the sample of cookie dough that held a strain of E. coli obtained from a Nestle USA manufacturing facility in Virginia was not the same strain that hospitalized 35 people. As of Thursday the investigation of the plant was officially over. Despite the E. coli being found in the cookie dough, there were no E. coli strains found on equipment, shifting the blame away from Nestle. And after conducting 1,000+ tests at the facility after the outbreak, taking apart the production line and testing all the equipment in the facility, you’d better believe that the FDA almost wanted to find something wrong here so they can cite the source of the outbreak and prevent more widespread sickness.

Following this great news, Nestle USA spokeswoman Laurie MacDonald said they’re going to recontinue making our favorite snacks at the plant. They’ve purchased and are going to thoroughly test new lots of ingredients. In terms of when they’ll be back in the freezer aisle, though, that won’t happen for some time unfortunately. But when it does happen, there will be a new label that will indicate freshness and a new batch.

Well, that sucks. As my favorite pre-made dough, it’s really disappointing to hear that I won’t see it on the shelves for “quite some time.” Will I have to resort to Pillsbury?!?! Obviously this is going to mean a huge sales decline for Nestle, not only because of the bad press but because of how long it is going to take them to be able to sell cookie dough again. Big sad face I wonder if the new packaging will put a spike in their sales… or if it’ll bust a Tropicana orange juice repackaging nightmare.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/10/toll.house.dough.e.coli/

Chloe's Cookie Blog » CNN

Nestle Toll House cookie dough in the clear… kind of