What Can We Learn From the Cookie Dough Recall?
The recall of Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough last Friday underscored two important points regarding the safety of the nation’s food supply and the complexity of supply chain risk management. First, it appears that no one food is more, or less, risky than another. Second, consumers often don’t, or can’t, follow the food safety instructions found on the packaging label.
Nestle USA issued the recall late last week after health officials linked the cookie dough to a national outbreak of illness from the bacteria E.coli 0157. As many as 65 people in 29 states have been sickened. 25 have been hospitalized. But, what’s truly puzzling investigators here is that E.coli 0157 lives in the intestines of cattle –meaning that outbreaks are typically associated with contaminated meat. How could this particular bacteria, E.coli 0157, have ended up in refrigerated cookie dough? (more…)
