Cookie dough e-coli lawsuits?

[Caveat Emptor]

I admit that I have indulged in eating Nestle raw cookie-dough and have never gotten sick (T/G). It does say on the side of the package not to eat it raw due to risk of foodborne illness. People who have gotten sick are going to sue - do they have a case?

[Rapscallion]

I would say not - there are warnings on each packet, and the state attempts to ensure that everyone can read. I'd put that as a pretty clear 'fuck you' to litigious people.

I hadn't heard of this tale and there may be mitigating factors of which I'm unaware, so I'm basing this on what I can see here.

Rapscallion

[Caveat Emptor]

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...63&newsLang=en

[Nyoibo]

Remove warning labels and let nature take it's course damn it.

[Teysa]

I'll admit I like raw cookie dough too although it's not something I indulge in often. Mostly it's just a bit here and there when I'm making cookies. At the same time, If I were to get sick from it, I wouldn't blame the cookie company. It would be my own darn fault for not heeding the warnings and I'd have no one to blame but myself. So, no I don't think these people have a case.

[lupo pazzesco]

If I want to eat raw cookie dough, really simple solution to preventing illness.

Freeze it first. E. Coli isn't an extreme thermophile, so it can't stand exceedingly cold or exceedingly hot conditions, (which is why so much hype is made about why cooking meat properly kills the bacteria)

Regarding the lawsuits, I really do want to see the lawyers argue why their clients should get money, despite the very clear warning label that eating the dough raw is a health hazard.

Although, I've seen it argued on some other forums that warning labels are just there to cover companies' asses, because they just want legal protection for what is an accepted practice, and they just don't want to be sued.

Well....duh...

[blas87]

I must have a good immune system. I've eaten many a log of those after a bad argument or breakup and have never gotten sick.

It's garlic that gives me the squirts out of both ends for days and days.

[Flyndaran]

The E coli. came from cow crap. How is that on the warning label for cookie dough?

[Rapscallion]

The E coli. came from cow crap. How is that on the warning label for cookie dough?

The original source for most E.coli is cow crap, but there are other sources, and there is cross contamination in the world.

Rapscallion

[BroomJockey]

The E coli. came from cow crap. How is that on the warning label for cookie dough?

There's acceptable amounts of foreign materials at each point in the creation process for mass-produced food-stuffs. Here's a plausible scenario:

Cow breaks in to wheat field. Poops all over. It's left, because who's gonna pick up cow poop from a field?

Poop contains E coli. E coli is now present on the wheat that was trampled by said cow.

Harvester comes along. Picks up all wheat, including contaminated stuffs. And some mice, rabbits, and insects to boot.

Wheat is taken to plant, ground up in to flour. Not treated at high enough temp to kill E Coli at any point.

Flour is used to make cookie dough. Again, not treated to any temp to kill E Coli.

Dough shipped out, eaten, people sick. And that's just right at the start of the chain.

[Flyndaran]

All those scenarios suggest that not cooking everything you eat is negligent. Would you all think the e coli. vegetable outbreaks are their fautl too for not coooking it?
The reason cookie dough has such warnings is specifically for the extremely unlikely chance of getting salmonella. They didn't get salmonella so their choice to not cook it has not a gosh darned thing to do with premade warnings.

[Rapscallion]

That may be the reason behind it as the most likely bacteria, but the fact is that it doesn't say on the packet to not eat it unless your immune system shits out the corpses of salmonella bacteria for fun and profit, but you shouldn't find any other bacteria in there.

The phrasing above - not seen the exact words on a packet - says due to risk of foodborne illness. They're covered.

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

If freaking "shit from unhealthy cows" is not one of the listed ingredients, I'd say yeah, they have a case.

That's where deadly strains of e-coli comes from. Feces from cows, particularly corn-fed ones, if I understand it.

Say you DO cook it. Are you expecting to have cow shit on your hands or your kids hands from handling it? Well, you will if you handle the stuff normally. You can contaminate yourself before the stuff gets into the oven.

Basically, I can't trust a package of food to not have shit in it. apparently. That's not cool, to say the least. I'm not paying for shit, I'm paying for food. It's one thing to get sick because you ate something that commonly will give you a tummy ache if you eat it raw...such as cookie dough. I mean, cookie dough has raw egg...you kind of take your chances with salmonella when you indulge. But e-coli? Seriously?

I don't let my three year old play around with raw meat. The reason? Don't want her to get exposed to e-coli on her hands. That particular bacteria could kill her. So now I have to treat freaking cookie dough like a slab of raw meat, all because we can't seem to keep the turds out of our food supply. I can't pull out a slab of nestles and make cookies with my kid because she might DIE. I mean, really, they even mentioned in the recall to not even cook it, just throw it out, because it's too dangerous to risk contaminating your kitchen with. That's not a reasonable risk.

It's reasonable to say "don't eat this food raw." It's NOT reasonable to say "because it's got shit in it!" No! I hope the butts get sued off every damn body! Because that's the only thing that's gonna force companies to knock it off with the shit in our food!

NOTE TO LUPO: Hey, Lupo, I looked up the freezing thing, because that sounded like a real easy fix, but alas, judging from what I'm reading, I don't think it's so. I think it can survive freezing.

[BroomJockey]

If freaking "shit from unhealthy cows" is not one of the listed ingredients, I'd say yeah, they have a case.

You know there's an acceptable insect quotient in prepared foods, right? And that's not listed.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I know.

But eating bugs doesn't, you know, KILL you.

And some of them don't taste all that bad, either.