Is Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough Really to Blame for E. Coli Scare?
Samples of raw Toll House brand cookie dough taken from a Nestle manufacturing plant do not match the strain of the bacteria linked to an outbreak of food poisoning blamed for sickening dozens of consumers in 30 states, health officials said.
The new findings call into question whether the prepackaged, refrigerated Toll House cookie dough products recalled on June 19 over concerns about possible salmonella contamination really are to blame for sickening at least 69 consumers across the United States. Officials said they are continuing to investigate the possible link between the pre-made dough products and the reports of E. coli food poisoning.
Several consumers already have filed personal-injury lawsuits against Nestle, claiming they became ill after eating raw cookie dough made by the company. It is unclear how the reports about the strain of E. coli not matching the bacteria found in the cookie dough samples will affect those cases.
Samples not a Match for Outbreak Strain
The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected samples of raw cookie dough from unopened packages of Toll House products at a Nestle plant in Virginia and later confirmed that the samples contained E. coli bacteria. But yesterday, officials said further testing of the samples determined the strain of E. coli found at the plant was not the same strain found in people sickened by the bacteria.
Potentially Deadly Food Poisoning
E. coli can cause abdominal cramping, vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea that may be bloody in consumers who eat food or drink water contaminated with the bacteria. Symptoms are most often mild to moderate, but in some cases, salmonella infection can reach the blood stream and cause potentially life-threatening complications, including kidney failure. The frail or elderly, young children, and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk of severe problems from E. coli poisoning.
The germ can be spread by unsanitary conditions or improper handling and storage of food products and has been associated with outbreaks of food poisoning caused by contaminated beef, spinach, and other foods.
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If you knew anything about E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogenic E. coli, you would understand that it is not unusual to find multiple strains in an outbreak. So far two strains of E. coli that can cause human illness and death have been found in sample of Nestle product (in the plant retained sample and in one of my clients’ left over product). The fact that the PFGE (genetic fingerprint) of the now three types of E. coli do not match is not even remotely relevant. The CDC did a remarkable job linking the now 74 people with the same PFGE and MLVA patterns to each other and the consumption on Nestle Cookie Dough.