Thread: "NESTLE's Cookie Dough Is As Good As We Say It Is," Says Swiss-BasedChocolate Maker!

Have Some Cookies ... Chocolate Chip or E. coli?

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"E. Coli Confirmed In Nestlé Samples"

"Cookie Dough Ingredient May Be Source"

By Lyndsey Layton and Greg Gaudio
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 30, 2009



THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION said yesterday that it had confirmed
the presence of E. coli 0157, a deadly strain of bacteria, in samples
of Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough produced at the
company's plant in Danville, Va.

Investigators did not find the bacterium inside the factory or on
equipment but in a tub of chocolate cookie dough made at the site in
February, said David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food safety
at the FDA. The dough had a June 10 expiration date.

Nestlé voluntarily recalled 30,000 cases of its refrigerated cookie
dough on June 19 after officials at the FDA and the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention suspected that dozens of cases of
E. coli-related illness were linked to the product.

Nearly all the victims, most of whom are female and younger than 19,
reported eating raw cookie dough in the days before the onset of
symptoms.

Health officials still do not know how E. coli 0157, a bacterium that
lives in cattle intestines, ended up in a product that seems so
unlikely to contain it. The risk usually associated with cookie dough
is salmonella, a bacterium that can be found in raw eggs. None of the
ingredients in the dough -- eggs, milk, flour, chocolate, butter -- is
known to host E. coli 0157.

Federal investigators spent more than a week at the Danville plant and
did not detect contamination in the equipment or among workers,
Acheson said. "It raises the likelihood that it was an ingredient," he
said. "And it really means that industry has to be constantly
vigilant, because foods we think of as low risk could be contaminated
with a deadly pathogen."

As of last week, CDC reported 69 cases of E. coli 0157 illness linked
to cookie dough in 29 states -- including two in Maryland and two in
Virginia. The agency said that 34 of the victims have been
hospitalized and that nine developed a serious complication known as
hemolytic-uremic syndrome. None has died.

William Marler, a food safety lawyer in Seattle who is representing 23
of the victims, said the laboratory results that confirm contamination
boost the legal claims. "But it doesn't help you figure out how the E.
coli got into the cookie dough," he said.

The portion of the Nestlé plant that makes cookie dough, and employs
about 250 people, has been shuttered since June 19 as federal
investigators and company officials try to determine the source of the
contamination. The other part of the plant, which makes Buitoni pasta,
continues to run. A company spokeswoman said it is unclear when the
cookie dough factory, which makes all of Nestlé's refrigerated cookie
dough, will reopen. "We are very concerned about those who have become
ill from E. coli 0157:H7, and deeply regret that this has occurred,"
the company said in a statement.

At Poogie's Buffet & Grill, about half a mile from the Nestlé plant,
the facility's closure was seen as another stroke of bad luck for a
rural community hit hard by the sour economy.

"The economy's already messed up," said Jared Sellers, 25, a manager
at the restaurant. "It's 8 o'clock on a Saturday [night], and nobody's
here."

E. coli refers to many kinds of bacteria, most of which are harmless
or even beneficial. But certain types, including E. coli 0157, produce
a toxin that can cause severe illness and even death in humans. The E.
coli 0157 bacterium lives in the intestines of cows and other animals,
including goats, sheep, deer and elk, and is found most often in
ground beef. But over the past decade, a number of E. coli 0157
illness outbreaks have been associated with green, leafy produce, such
as spinach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062903813.html

"Multiple Bacteria Suspected in Tainted Cookie Dough"

By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 10, 2009



FEDERAL AND STATE INVESTIGATORS found two different strains of E. coli
bacteria in samples of recalled Nestlé Toll House cookie dough, and
neither matches the type that has caused a national outbreak of
illness, suggesting that the product may have been contaminated by
multiple kinds of bacteria.

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that laboratory
analysis of E. coli O157 found in a sample of cookie dough at Nestlé's
Danville, Va., plant did not match the strain that is believed to have
sickened 72 people in Maryland, Virginia and 28 other states.

The state of Minnesota reported that preliminary tests of a package of
Nestlé cookie dough taken from a household where two people were
sickened by E. coli O157 showed the product was contaminated with a
third deadly strain of bacterium, E. coli O124.

Meanwhile, federal officials said yesterday that they were finishing
their probe of Nestlé's Danville plant, which involved more than 1,000
microbiological tests. They remained stumped. "I think it probably is
going to remain a mystery," said David Acheson, assistant commissioner
for food safety at the FDA.

Of those sickened, 34 have been hospitalized. None has died.

Investigators did not find E. coli inside the Danville plant, on
equipment, in raw ingredients or in additional samples of cookie
dough, Acheson said.

E. coli O157 lives in the intestines of cows, sheep and other animals
and is most often associated with ground beef. None of the ingredients
in cookie dough -- eggs, milk, flour, chocolate, butter -- is known to
host the bacterium.

Nestlé voluntarily recalled 30,000 cases of its refrigerated cookie
dough on June 19 after officials at the FDA and the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention suspected that dozens of cases of
E. coli-related illness were linked to the product.

Nestlé, which temporarily shut down its plant and dismantled its
equipment, tentatively began producing cookie dough on Tuesday, after
finding new suppliers for flour, eggs and margarine, a spokeswoman
said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...070902442.html

Y'all slobs still eatin' this poison ****?

Go ahead!

You're better off dead. And the world will be the better for it.

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"This Woman Might Die From Eating Cookie Dough"

"Severe Case Gives Context to Issue of Food Safety"

By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 1, 2009


LAS VEGAS -- In Room 519 of Kindred Hospital, Linda Rivera can no
longer speak.

Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in
the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up
on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the
Nestlé cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal
health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened
by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7.

The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and
nine other victims who developed a life-threatening complication known
as hemolytic uremic syndrome. One, a 4-year-old girl from South
Carolina, had a stroke and is partially paralyzed.

The E. coli victims are among millions -- one in four Americans --
sickened by food-borne illnesses each year. As waves of recalls have
caused the public to lose confidence in the safety of food, lawmakers
are scrambling to respond. In July, the House approved legislation
that would give the Food and Drug Administration broad new powers and
place new responsibilities on food producers. The bill would speed up
the ability of health officials to track down the source of an
outbreak and give the government the power to mandate a recall, rather
than rely on food producers to voluntarily pull tainted products from
the shelves.

The Senate is expected to take up its version in the fall, and the
issue has become a high priority for the White House.

It is impossible to say whether new laws and tougher enforcement would
have prevented the contamination of the Nestlé cookie dough, which the
company voluntarily pulled from stores hours after the government
linked it to the outbreak.

Last week, chilled packages of the chocolate-chip cookie dough
returned to supermarkets after a two-month absence as company
executives tried in vain to find the cause of the contamination. They
scrubbed their production plant, bought new ingredients and started
making dough again.

Linda Rivera has just been trying to stay alive. Her cascading
problems started about seven days after she ate the dough when her
kidneys shut down and she went into septic shock. Then doctors had to
remove part of her colon, which had become contaminated. Soon, her
gallbladder was inflamed and had to be excised. Shortly after, her
liver stopped functioning. It is unclear exactly what is causing her
loss of speech, although the toxin produced by the E. coli O157:H7
bacteria can attack the brain.

Of all the victims, Rivera has spent the most time in hospitals --
about 120 days since May. She was recovering well enough at one point
to go home for nine days but, during that reprieve, she had to be
rushed to the emergency room three times.

Her case is unusual because E. coli O157:H7 tends to most seriously
affect the very young and old. At 57, Linda Rivera is not part of
either vulnerable group. Her situation is also unique for the number
of major organs that have been injured. Her family and one of her
physicians said she had no underlying health problems that would have
exacerbated the infection.

"Once these patients get into a downward spiral, it's hard to pinpoint
why things go wrong," said Michael Gross, a kidney specialist who has
treated Rivera. "The chances of her coming out of the hospital and
getting into a normal life cycle are low."

The Rivera family never gave much thought to food-borne illness. "You
watch a commercial, you go into a store and you just assume it's okay
to eat," said Linda's husband, Richard, a sales manager for a Web
site. "I assume if it's on a shelf, it's safe. But this whole thing
has changed the way I look at food."

Among the pathogens that can harm human health, E. coli O157:H7 is one
of the most lethal, and there is no known cure. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 70,000 people are
infected annually with E. coli O157:H7, but the actual number is
unknown because many illnesses go unreported.

"People just don't really understand how horrible food-borne illness
is," said William Marler, a prominent Seattle-based food-safety lawyer
who is representing the Rivera family and 23 other victims in the
cookie dough outbreak. "They think food-borne illness is a tummy ache
and diarrhea."

E. coli O157:H7 is typically associated with beef because the bacteria
lives in the intestines of cows, goats and other ruminants. But in
recent years, the bacteria has turned up in unexpected places, such as
spinach and other leafy greens, and, now, cookie dough.

Linda Rivera was a high school teacher's aide who was always in
motion, cheering her sons at their soccer games and wrestling and
track meets, ferrying her twin teenage boys across town to playing
fields and skate parks. Now she struggles to hold up her head. Her
communication is reduced to shaky hand signals; she turns her right
thumb up or down slightly in answer to her husband's questions.

Richard Rivera's eyes well up when he contrasts the exhausted, gaunt
woman lying askew in the hospital bed with the bubbly blonde he
married 12 years ago. It was a second marriage for both, and they each
brought three children to the union. "We called ourselves the Brady
Bunch," he said.

A bearish man in sneakers, shorts and a baseball cap, he spends his
days and nights in Room 519, rubbing Linda's feet, dabbing her eyes
with a cool washcloth and trying to spoon-feed her medication. He
sleeps fitfully in a chair by her bed.

He holds up both sides of the conversation.

"Are you hot?" he asked Friday. "Give me a thumbs up if you're hot."
He watched as Linda shakily turned her right thumb upward. "Okay,
baby, do you want the blanket off your leg? Linda, you're turning red.
Are you breathing? Okay, I just wanted to make sure."

Linda Rivera is so weak, she can't suck on a straw long enough to draw
liquid out of a cup. She is being fed nutrients intravenously.

Once the CDC made the link between the outbreak of E. coli illness and
Nestlé cookie dough in June, Nestlé immediately recalled about 3.6
million packages at a cost of $30 million to $50 million, according to
Laurie McDonald, a company spokeswoman.

The company and FDA investigators focused on Nestlé's Danville, Va.,
plant, which produces all its refrigerated cookie dough. E. coli
O157:H7 was not found in the plant or on equipment but was detected
among the samples of dough that Nestlé routinely sets aside for
analysis. However, the contaminated dough had a different genetic
fingerprint than the strain that caused the national outbreak,
puzzling company officials.

In consultation with the FDA, Nestlé bought new supplies of flour,
eggs and margarine and restarted production July 7, McDonald said. The
revived product, which is packaged with a "New Batch" label and a
prominent warning against eating raw cookie dough, went on sale last
week. It is too early to track sales, McDonald said.

Nestlé "is aware of Mrs. Rivera's illness and our thoughts and prayers
are with her and her family," McDonald said. She said the company has
been in contact with the Rivera family through Marler and "we have
offered support to the family." She declined to elaborate.

Neither Richard Rivera nor Marler would say whether Nestlé has made
any payments. Linda Rivera has not filed a lawsuit against Nestlé,
although three of Marler's clients have.

In the three months since she fell ill, Linda Rivera missed her 18-
year-old son J.J.'s high school graduation. She missed Mother's Day.
Her stepsister unexpectedly died last week, but Richard hasn't told
Linda, not wanting to add to her stress.

When friends or family relieve him from his post inside Room 519,
Richard stands in the 107-degree heat outside the hospital and takes
deep drags on Marlboro Lights. At twilight Friday, one of those
friends, Greg Van Houten, joined him on the sidewalk.

"What do you think, Greg?" Richard asked.

"I think she's dying," Van Houten said.

Richard nodded. His eyes filled with tears.

Moments passed. The two men went back inside the air-conditioned
hospital. In Linda's room, her husband, her sons, neighbors and
friends formed a small circle around her bed. In yellow hospital gowns
and face masks, they clasped hands and prayed for her return to
health.

"You made it this far -- don't give up on us, Mom," said Tony, one of
her 17-year-old twin boys, who sniffled beneath his face mask. "You've
done everything for me in my life."

Since May, there have been several moments when Richard thought he
might lose his wife. Each time, she rebounded, and then relapsed.
"That's how it's been through this whole thing," he said. "You feel
like you're taking five steps forward and then three steps backward."

He is hoping for another, final rebound.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=artslot

On Tue, 1 Sep 2009 07:02:44 -0700 (PDT), spicpussy <[email protected]> wrote:

-->Y'all slobs still eatin' this poison ****?
-->
-->Go ahead!
-->
-->You're better off dead. And the world will be the better for it.
-->
-->------------------------
-->"This Woman Might Die From Eating Cookie Dough"
-->

As anyone knows, it's not safe to eat raw product...btw does your mommy or the
people at comcast.net know your using the computer?