Michigan Personal Injury Blog - Nestle

Don't Drown Your Sorrows with Cookie Dough: Nestle Recalls Refrigerated Dough for Potential E. coli Contamination

David Mittleman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:01:36 GMT

Danville, Virginia—no one can quite figure out how a strain of E. coli, commonly found in the intestines of cows, may have gotten into a batch of Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough. Nevertheless, federal microbiologists and food safety inspectors have already launched a full scale investigation into the mystery after at least 65 people reported food borne illness symptoms after consuming raw dough. So far, all refrigerated Nestle products have been pulled from grocery store shelves to prevent further illness while investigators attempt to confirm the presence of E. coli in the dough.

Alarmingly, two-thirds of the 65 victims are under the age of 19. Health officials are particularly concerned about this outbreak because of the severe complications that can arise with food borne illnesses in children and the elderly. Nestle has reportedly cooperated fully with federal authorities and recalled all of the 300,000 cases of potentially contaminated dough within 24 hours of being notified by the FDA that there was a problem.

Investigators are still testing samples of the dough collected from the Danville, VA plant as well as dough from the victims. While there is still no solid proof that the dough contained E. coli 0157, an epidemiologist on the case says he is “100% certain” that the cookie dough is to blame for the reported illnesses since everyone who got sick reportedly ate raw Nestle cookie dough. Ironically, the risk usually associated with eating raw cookie dough is Salmonella, a type of bacteria found in raw eggs. Nestle does have a notice on their packaging warning consumers not to eat the cookie dough raw. However, raw dough has become a popular snack thanks, in part, to the popular ice cream flavor.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Mittleman

USDA Recalls 900,000 Pounds of Lean Cuisine Chicken Dinners

David Mittleman — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:12:00 GMT

Nestle Prepared Foods Co., who distributes Lean Cuisine frozen meals, has recalled three types of frozen chicken dinners due to small chunks of blue plastic found in the chicken. The plastic has been found in the following Lean Cuisine meals: Café Classics Pesto Chicken with Bow Tie Pasta, Spa Cuisine Chicken Mediterranean, and Dinnertime Selects Chicken Tuscan, all of which were distributed nationwide and produced between August 18 and October 27, 2008. There have been several reports of consumers biting into the hard plastic and Nestle has reported one injury. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has labeled the recall as a Class I recall-- a “health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”

The recalled dinners are:

9.5-ounce packages of "LEAN CUISINE PESTO CHICKEN WITH BOW TIE PASTA". Printed on the side of each package is a production code of "8280595912," and a use-by date of "Best Before MAY 2010."
10.5-ounce packages of "LEAN CUISINE CHICKEN MEDITERRANEAN". Printed on the side of each package is a production code of "8231595912" or "8241595912" and a use-by date of "Best before SEP 2010"; a production code of "8263595912," "8269595911," or "8274595912," and a use-by date of "Best before OCT 2010"; or a production code of "8291595912" or "8301595912" and a use-by date of "Best before NOV 2010."
12.5-ounce packages of "LEAN CUISINE CHICKEN TUSCAN". Printed on the side of each package is a production code of "8234595911" and a use-by date of "Best before SEP 2009"; a production code of "8253595911" or "8269595912" and a use-by date of "Best before OCT 2009"; or a production code of "8292595911" or "8296595911" with a use-by date of "Best before NOV 2009."

Consumers with any of the above-mentioned meals in their freezer should return the package to the store it was purchased for a full refund. Questions should be directed to 1-800-227-6188.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Mittleman

Clean Water

David Mittleman — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:45:00 GMT

Diverting Michigan’s water supply has been a hot topic in the state for a long time. Michigan residents have long feared the threat from western states and foreign countries seeking a water supply in the Great Lakes Basin. On October 3, 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Great Lakes Compact into law. The Compact is a multi-state agreement that gives the states and provinces of the Great Lakes Basin more power to regulate large diversions out of the Basin.

While the Compact is a big step in the right direction, environmental groups like Clean Water Action fear that the Compact also has a large loophole for the newest threat to Basin waters - bottled water. The bottled water loophole allows an unlimited exemption for water that is bottled in containers that are 5.7 gallons or less.

In 2007, the Supreme Court of Michigan made severe alterations to the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) in a ruling for Nestlé Waters of North America. Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation v Nestlé Waters of North America, 479 Mich. 280, 302, 737 N.W.2d 447 (2007). Originally, MEPA was designed to give the private citizen a sizable share of the initiative for environmental law enforcement. The Michigan Court overruled 30 years of case law that held that any person could bring legal action to protect Michigan’s natural resources from harm.

Not only does the bottled water industry pose environmental threats to Michigan, there are also threats posed by the product itself. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that some bottled waters are the same quality as tap water; and that 10 popular brands of bottled water contained traces of pain medications and fertilizer residue, among 38 other chemical pollutants - an average of 8 contaminants in each brand.

The EWG also reports "one bottled water brand spurred a 78% increase in the growth of breast cancer cells compared to the control sample, with 1200 initial breast cancer cells multiplying to 32,000 in 4 days, versus only 18,000 for the control sample, indicating that chemical contaminants in the bottled water sample stimulated accelerated division of cancer cells."

Unfortunately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not made the regulation of bottled water a high priority despite the evidence to suggest that it should. In fact, 60-70% of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is exempt from the agency’s bottled water standards because the rules do not apply to water bottled and sold within the same state.

In addition to the poor quality of bottled water, bottled water comes at a price that is more expensive than gasoline. The Earth Policy Institute reports that bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more than tap water - $10 per gallon! You might be asking, "how is this possible?" In a word - oil. 17 million barrels of oil are required to satisfy the demand for bottled water each year in the U.S. - enough to fuel 1 million cars for one year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum2.7 million tons of plastic are used for bottled water worldwide.

There are several steps that you can take to protect yourself from contaminated water and help conserve energy at the same time. Learn what is coming out of your tap. Local tap water suppliers are required to publish their water quality tests, while bottled water companies do not. Go to http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/findings.php to learn more about your local tap water provider. Use filtered water for consumption. Carbon filters, like Brita, are cheap and can reduce many of the contaminants that may come out of your faucet. Use a water bottle that does not contain a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) when you want to take water with you.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Mittleman