"What E. coli are you talkin' about?"

"According to reports released by the FDA, the company declined to
allow agency investigators access to certain documents in at least
2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007."

-------
"Refused FDA Records Requests"

Associated Press
Saturday, June 27, 2009


Inspection reports from a Nestlé USA cookie dough factory released
yesterday show the company declined several times in the past five
years to provide Food and Drug Administration inspectors with
complaint logs, pest-control records and other information.

The records, which date to 2004, were made public after Nestlé's Toll
House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough was discovered to be the
likely culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in
29 states, according to the latest estimates from the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC and the FDA are
investigating the outbreak.

According to the reports released by the FDA, the company declined to
allow agency investigators access to certain documents in at least
2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said the Glendale, Calif., unit of
Switzerland-based Nestlé SA had the right to do so. "Companies have
the right to make conditions on what they will or will not permit
during an inspection," she said.

However, the FDA can force a company to comply if public health is at
stake.

In a statement, Nestlé said that it rejects any implication that it
did not cooperate with the FDA and that it provided all information
required under law, adding that its practices are standard within the
food industry.

"Nestlé always fully cooperates with the regulatory authorities
wherever it operates, and Nestlé is fully cooperating with the Food
and Drug Administration at our Danville, Virginia plant in this
matter," the company said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062604354.html

Has anybody had any issues with the cookie dough from a personal standpoint? Thanks for the post!

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

---------------------
"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