This month, seventy people have been sickened after consuming uncooked Nestle cookie dough products The culprit: a virulent strain of E. coli, a bacterium normally associated with tainted beef products. The contamination has been traced back to a processing plant in Virginia, and 300,000 cases of the product have been recalled by Nestle.
Certainly, it’s troubling that a contaminant from cattle is ending up in cookie dough. The FDA is now attempting to investigate the source. However, the weak authority that the FDA actually has in cases like this has hampered their investigation. Under current law, companies are not required to turn over all food safety records to the FDA during an investigation, so Nestle has opted not provide those records — nor have they over the last several years.
On the bright side, new legislation is attempting to give the FDA more authority for patrolling food safety, including compelling companies to turn over their records during an investigation. It’s long overdue, but at least it should give the FDA a better chance of getting to the bottom of why these foreign contaminants seem to keep ending up in our food.
See coverage in the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times.
