Cookie dough recalled

NEW YORK — Nestlé USA recalled its Toll House refrigerated-cookie-dough products Friday after federal health officials linked the dough to infections from the bacteria E. coli in 66 people in 29 states, including five in Washington.

Officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a preliminary investigation shows "a strong association" between eating raw refrigerated cookie dough made by Nestlé and the illnesses in the states whose lab results have found E. coli bacteria since March.

About 25 of those people were hospitalized, but no one died. Most patients were young and female.

E. coli O157, the strain linked to the Nestlé dough, is a particularly dangerous pathogen normally linked with contaminated meat. It causes abdominal cramping, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. Most adults recover within a week, but the disease can lead to serious kidney damage and death.

Two of the five Washington cases were King County residents, and single cases were reported in Grays Harbor, Pierce and Thurston counties, according to the state Department of Health. All cases occurred in May. Two people were hospitalized.

Nestlé voluntarily recalled all Toll House refrigerated cookie-dough products after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised consumers to throw away any Nestlé Toll House cookie-dough products in their homes and asked retailers, restaurateurs and other food-service operations not to sell or serve any of the recalled products.

Customers can return any recalled product where they bought it for a full refund. The recall does not affect other Toll House products, including chocolate chips and ice cream that contains raw Toll House dough.

FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said officials were confident Nestlé refrigerated-dough products caused the outbreak.

Spokeswoman Laurie MacDonald for Nestlé USA in Glendale, Calif., a unit of Switzerland-based Nestlé, said the company has temporarily stopped making the refrigerated-dough products while the FDA investigates the Ohio factory where they were made.

Dr. Timothy Jones, Tennessee's state epidemiologist, said the cookie-dough recall demonstrated how difficult it has become to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply.

"We're all having trouble figuring out how E. coli O157 gets in cookie dough," Jones said. "This wasn't on anybody's radar screen."

Among the early food suspects were strawberries and fruit smoothies, but neither quite fit. On Wednesday, health investigators in Washington state proposed a link with Nestlé's cookie dough, prompting officials in the rest of the country to re-interview victims. All six in Minnesota confirmed eating dough, said Carlota Medus, an epidemiologist in the state health department.

The FDA is continuing to investigate the source of the contamination.

"Was it a contaminated ingredient, and if so what?" said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods. "Or was it a problem that occurred inside the facility during processing?"

The FDA said consumers should not cook the dough, even though it would be safe to eat if cooked, because the bacteria could move to their hands and to countertops and other surfaces.

Raw cookie dough is so popular that it has spawned more than 40 groups on Facebook.

But no raw cookie dough is necessarily safe. The eggs in Nestlé's Toll House's dough are pasteurized, which eliminates most of the risk of salmonella infection from raw eggs. But other ingredients could contain pathogens or bacteria, and the company warns in product labels not to eat the dough raw.

Several recent food recalls have been related to bacterial contamination, including a salmonella outbreak last winter traced to a peanut company that sickened more than 600 people and that was blamed for at least nine deaths. A separate outbreak of salmonella last year linked to jalapeño peppers from Mexico led 1,400 people to become ill.