In another tragic foodborne illness and another recall with more questions than answers; Nestle Toll House cookies are suspected in an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 across many states throughout the US. While parents are always understandably concerned about food safety and their children; it has become increasingly difficult to protect them when foodborne illness is showing up in unusual places.
E. coli O157:H7 is a bacterium that lives in the intestines of various mammals that are immune to its affects. The most common animal associated with this type of E. coli is the cow.
If you look at the ingredients in a package of Nestlé’s Toll House Cookies, there are only a few ingredients that would be derived from an animal. There is Milkfat used in the chocolate morsels. This shouldn’t have been a problem if the milk ingredients were properly pasteurized. But all it takes is one contaminated item and the machines used to process this item are now pathogenic. There are also eggs that are used, but E. coli is a disease usually associated with mammal intestines, not bird eggs. If this was a salmonella outbreak, eggs would be a likely suspect. However, this is an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.
There are some vegetable derived ingredients and vegetables can carry E. coli O157:H7. Remember back to 2006, spinach was the culprit behind an E. coli outbreak. But the spinach was raw and the Toll House cookie ingredients are processed vegetable by-products.
A possible scenario could be a cross contamination event. As an attorney who has represented hundreds of victims of waterborne illnesses, I know how easy it is for a water source to get contaminated. Everywhere contaminated water is used, a potential for E. coli exists. There is also the possibility of an employee who was sick with E. coli to pass it along to others.
Then, there is animal cross contamination from infestation. Since mammals can carry E. coli, any mouse or rat could be a potential introduction. Just look at what happened with the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) salmonella outbreak. Rats and insects were able to permeate the area where the peanuts were stored. A rat or mouse infected with E. coli O157:H7 might not be immune from its damaging effects but could easily spread E. coli through its feces.
We are now looking into what went wrong in this situation on behalf of injured consumers. Let’s hope answers are discovered before more become victims of this latest foodborne illness outbreak.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2010
