E. coli sickness is usually the result of eating contaminated beef, especially ground beef, so it's left everyone confused how this could happen in cookie dough. Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who has litigated prominent E. coli cases offers, and rebuts, some hypotheses:
E. coli can contaminate milk; Wikipedia notes that it can get into milk from the udder or processing machines. It's unlikely that Nestle was using raw milk, though, and pasteurization would kill the bacteria.
E. coli can also be spread through poor hygiene by someone with the bacteria in his system (say by eating undercooked hamburger). An employee who didn't wash his hands after coming into contact with contaminated feces or anuses might be the source, but Marler doubts that it was an employee, given the size of the outbreak (illnesses have been reported in 29 states).
Marler notes that your typical dirty processing culprits, rats and mice, might have spread the bacteria, but warns that "always be aware that somewhere in the background likely lurks a cow." With milkfat and whey both on the list of ingredients, we wonder if either was responsible.
Nestle Recall Leaves a Mystery in Its Wake [WaPo]
So, How the Hell Does Cow Shit (E. coli O157:H7) Get Into Nestle's Toll House Cookie Dough? [Marler Blog]
(Photo: prep4md and jelene)
BLEAH!
@Jessica Schwartz: I do wash my hands, and use the squirty stuff I have in my purse.. I don't get why other people don't either. That's just GROSS!
Not necessarily- many antibiotics work by attacking cell membranes (or membrane synthesis pathways) or walls. If a bacterium gained resistance to one of these antibiotics by altering its membrane or wall composition, either through changes in protein structure, synthesis, or abundance, it could have s secondary effect of allowing the membrane to remain stable at higher temperatures.
While this is unlikely to be the cause of this specific outbreak, overuse of antibiotics (particularly in meat production/concentrated animal feeding operations) could lead to pasteurization resistant bacteria in the future.
]]>Everything comes down to poo! From the top of your head to the tip of your shoe..
Check the poo!
]]>@FLConsumer: I'm assuming the e. coli came from cross-contamination somewhere at a place that packages the ingredients for Nestle, rather than at Nestle themself. If it was a place that got milk in, unpasturized, and then pasturized it for shipping to other places as well as processing other ingredients such as eggs, I can see a container being used for the wrong thing and this happening.
]]>IANAL, but I think the "Don't eat raw" warning would prevent any lawsuits involving people who consumed the product in that state. Then again, how would you prove that people consumed the product cooked or raw?
More likely than not the victims will get a nice settlement in return for signing an NDA.
]]>Guess it keeps me in business lol.
Oh, and bibliophibian, you're at a higher risk of getting it again. Make sure you take probiotics anytime before and while taking antibiotics.
]]>Seriously, though, I'm happy with how Nestle has handled the recall. Very professional; they are obviously taking it seriously.
]]>I saw that at the bookstore last weekend. I didn't see the person's face, just heard her leave without washing (I was in the stall). It skeeved me out; I didn't want to touch ANY of the books after that!
]]>What the hell is C. diff? And how do I avoid it!
]]>Mmmmm cookies!
]]>My sympathies for your unpleasant job duties, but as a former hospital patient: Thank you!
]]>@astraelraen: $0.001 per bacteria.
]]>I've bought that cookie dough before and it was ok. But never again will I be able to look at it the same. Thanks for saving me the calories!
]]>Talk to the lettuce producers in California & tomato growers across the country. They got burned badly and now have internal voluntary standards that far exceed any gov't regulation.
]]>.. So what is it, is there e coli there or not? more fear mongering I'm guessing. ;)
]]>You were saying....
]]>@JRock: Seems like I work with a-holes all day :)
]]>I thought the questions about which company was more "green" was confusing. Being a pain in the ass by that point, I asked if they meant "green" as in eco-friendly or "green" as in colorful mold. It went downhill from there...
]]>Your variation of the recipe sounds delightful.
]]>Talk to Mike Rowe.
]]>Um, poo. Really not that mysterious at all. Whether the ultimate transmission vector was milk, milkfat, rats, mice, whatever, with e. coli it always comes back to poo. In today's world of the corporate food/industrial complex, there's really no way to avoid it.
Bon appetit!
]]>Oh, and there are antibiotics that treat MRSA: [en.wikipedia.org]
]]>Probably some disgusting idiot who left the shithouse without washing his/her hands. I can't tell you how often I see people doing this where I work. Luckily we don't deal with food. But still. it is enough so that I open all doors with papertowels or handwipes and such. People are pigs. :(
]]>By occam's razor, and knowing a little about industrial hygenics, there was probably someone at the plant who neglected to thoroughly wash their hands after handling food (about 4-8 hours after eating it)
]]>If the E. coli came from the milkfat or the whey, then it's possible that other products besides cookie dough are contaminated. That's what you get when you send real food like milk to a factory to be broken into pieces, then ship the pieces to other factories to be assembled into "food".
Follow the recipe on the Tollhouse chocolate chips bag to make your own E.coli free cookies. Make the following adjustments to create truly awesome cookies:
Brown the butter in a pan first. Put over medium heat and just let it melt, foam up, then turn brown. Also, instead of 2 eggs, use 1 egg and 1 egg yolk. Finally, increase the brown sugar by 1/4 cup and decrease the regular sugar by the same amount.
"An employee who didn't wash his hands after coming into contact with contaminated feces or anuses might be the source."
Hmmm. Suddenly not hungry...
]]>Also, The Lurking Cows would be a good band name.
]]>...you get salmonella from eggs, not e. coli.
]]>"Oh you got the Kevin string of E. Coli. Hey, the Kevin string infected InsertFamousPersonhere last month! So... that makes you sort of famous too!"
27.2% tax should do the trick.
]]>Don't go up 5th street to Baskin Robins past dark either.. lurking cows are not your friends.
]]>