Last year and earlier this year, Nestle discovered that its Virginia plant was the cause of an E. coli (Escherichia coli) outbreak that hospitalized 80 people in 33 states. At first stymied by the outbreak of E. coli, epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that the victims were generally young females – apparently not the demographic associated with ground beef related E. coli that we so often hear about in the press.

After interviewing the patients again, it came out that they had all eaten raw cookie dough – including the cookie dough variety found in ice cream. The Nestle plant associated with the outbreak was shut down and when it reopened, Nestle’s new packaging warned consumers not to eat the cookie dough raw. They also began testing each batch but soon again discovered it was contaminated and the plant had to be closed yet again. Now Nestle’s uses flour that has been heat treated to kill bacteria.

The outbreak caused several very serious cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome and one child suffered a stroke and became partially paralyzed. Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is caused by an infection of the digestive tract usually by E. coli although it can be caused by shigella or salmonella contamination. The bacteria releases toxins which destroy red blood cells (hemolysis) and this leads to kidney failure. Usually children are mainly affected – it’s the leading cause of kidney failure in children but children tend to recover completely.

There are many types of E. coli bacteria but the one that is most harmful to people is O157:H7 which is found in feces and in the intestinal tract of animals especially animals which chew their cud. This is why eating unpasteurized (raw) milk, eating undercooked meats or eating foods that have inadvertently been contaminated with feces (think contaminated water run-off on crops) can cause an outbreak.

For more information about E. coli and what you should do to protect yourself, follow this link – it contains a lot of good material. Oh – and ditch the cookie dough….

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