ABC Brian Hartman Reports - "Smoking Gun" Found in Nestle Cookie Dough E. coli Scare
Brian Hartman of ABC reports that FDA investigators today found E. coli O157:H7 at the plant in Danville, Virginia where Nestle makes Toll House Cookie Dough.
The bacteria, according to an FDA official, was found at the plant in an unopened package of raw chocolate chip cookie dough. It had been manufactured on February 10, 2009 but had not yet been shipped.
Investigators still do not know how the E. coli got into the dough. But finding this “smoking gun” package confirms they pushed for a recall of the correct product.
Well done Brian.
Just to make you aware -- the sample of E.coli bacteria reported in the Hartman story was not of the same strain that infected people who consumed the recalled product. The discovery certainly suggests a flawed production process at the plant in question, but it is not the "smoking gun." See: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/10/toll.house.dough.e.coli/index.html