It looks like Nestle’s Toll House cookie dough E. coli problem isn’t over. The company has announced that E. coli has been found in two samples of cookie dough made at its plant in Danville Virginia.
According to Nestle, the factory will be shut down for two weeks while Nestle modifies its recipe and production process. When the Nestle factory reopens, the company will begin using flour that has been heated to kill E. coli and other pathogens.
Nestle is not issuing a recall this time, saying that none of the tainted dough was ever shiped from the plant. The E. coli tainted dough, all the dough made since, and any product made the day prior to its discovery, is slated to be destroyed.
The E. coli discovery comes just months after the company issued a massive recall of refrigerated Toll House cookie dough made at the plant. That tainted cookie dough, which was recalled in June, was connected to 76 cases of E. coli poisoning in 31 states.
The Danville plant also stopped production at that time, and on the advice of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Nestle purchased new supplies of flour, eggs and margarine. The company also began testing all the ingredients entering its Danville plant. Production at Danville resumed July 7, and the product was returned to store shelves in late August. The new Nestle cookie dough bore a “New Batch” label and a prominent warning against eating it raw.
The FDA is now working with Nestle to try to find the source of this latest E. coli contamination.
