And Toll House has done? Oh that's right, nothing.

Of course, with an e.coli strain that large, you'd think it would be obvious...

Raw Eggs. Duh?

Pilsbury Doughboy = Corporate Saboteur

@zigziggityzoo: I think you're thinking salmonella. E. coli is different.

Who's Rick of Contamination? Is that E. Coli fellow his sidekick?

Is he related to Korgoth of Barbaria?

This has the makings of an awesome TV show.

"At least 25 people have been hospitalized since March."

So how much of the cookie dough is left in the 3 months it took to warn the public?

Stupid Rick, ruining all of those potential cookies.

First hamburgers, now cookies. E. Coli, is there nothing you won't sully?

Pickles in my cookie dough?

Isn't this always a concern with cookie dough given that it contains raw eggs? Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't it still be safe if you actually baked the cookies?

@rpm773: Right, E. Coli is found primarily in fecal matter, which makes this all the more disturbing.

Interestingly, the only place I could find the information "Return to your local grocer for a full refund" was on Nestle's press release page itself.

It was a little annoying to have to read five different sites to find this info. Consumerist, you should update your page to include that information.

I for one will keep eating raw dough (although, not the Nestle dough currently in my fridge!). I've eaten/tasted raw dough for my entire 27 years, as have every member of my family and friends, and I don't know anyone that's gotten sick from it.

I get that the company must have the warning, that's fine, but it's sort of like restaurants refusing to cook burgers rare or medium rare: it's alarmist and the small number of people who actually get sick don't warrant ruining it for everyone else.

This makes stealing a taste of the raw cookie dough while making cookies impossible. This is awful!

@FooSchnickens: It's a soft C...

Salmonella I can understand but E. Coli!? *shudders*

No more bathroom breaks during work hours! (haha wouldn't that be an interesting place to work)

@jaya9581: Yea, I like how the FDA says "throw it away" which means, if you like this product then you'll have to go out and buy more (of a different batch). Now E Coli is a great way to increase sales....

Uh-oh, so this means that green cookie dough I ate last night WASN'T mint chocolate chip ?

That pic is weird. If I seen that somewhere else I would have thought it was photoshopped. Gross.

@Zegridathes: I thought the same thing until I read this (from the FDA warning page):
Cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces.

@Zegridathes: I think it would be safe. But the presence of E coli, which is normally found in the lower intestines of animals and in their feces, implies possible unsanitary conditions at the processing plant. So the question is what else coming out of there is contaminated, that possibly wouldn't have the opportunity to be sterilized through the cooking process?

And it's salmonella that is the usual concern with raw eggs, not E coli.

@zigziggityzoo: All the eggs we eat started off as raw, prior to being cooked. To complain about using raw eggs seems sort of pointless.

To put it another way, if you think it's stupid to use raw eggs for baking, what do you recommend as a substitute: Fried eggs or hard boiled? And what do you recommend as a substitute for the raw egg you fried or boiled? So on and so forth...

I first caught a glimpse of the pic, without reading the title, and my first thought was: "Horrified mom finds giant worm in chocolate ice cream."

@Zegridathes: I think there's a label on the tub-o'-dough that says something to the effect of "Don't eat this shit without cooking the shit out of it." You know, so you don't get Rick and/or his friend E. coli. I think E. coli is just nature's new Darwinian tactic to rid the world of nitwits.

Toll House lawyers are not going to like the photoshop pic of their product with a giant sized e coli They will say the pic is meant to develop a negative impression of the Toll House name. Just guessing

@Blueskylaw: I always wonder what the percentage of people who used the product w/o getting sick is to those who did. I mean, I'm guessing that these 25 people don't even come close to the number statistical error equals.

@FooSchnickens:

...and their arch enemy Sal Monella

@Nidabriz: So by putting the bacteria in a 350 degree F oven, I chance getting bacteria on a metal surface which will also get to 350F? Is this some magic E. Coli that can withstand 350 degree heat?

You'd think that by properly following the instructions, you'd, maybe, cook the E. Coli to death. That's why it's hard to find hamburgers that are less than well-done these days.

@HomersBrain: And by throwing it away, you risk getting other people sick, through cross contamination.

@GMFish: The point there is that there's a risk from eating unbaked cookie dough rather than baked cookies, because the eggs are still raw pre-oven.

That said, it doesn't have much to do with the E.coli here, but still. When you eat cookie dough by the spoonful, which many people do (see also: the rise of Cookie Dough ice cream in the last 10-20 years), you're eating the eggs raw.

@Hoss:
Consumerist photoshops pictures all the time, and I really don't think Nestle is going to say anything about it.

@zigziggityzoo:

Raw eggs carry an extremely small risk of salmonella. They receive small doses of radiation prior to hitting grocery store shelves.

@Darrone:

How hard did you look before you reached the conclusion that Nestle has done nothing?

@NerdBurger_GitEmSteveDave: Nope, but you can get it on your hands while scooping out the dough, and then it can get on everything you touch...aprons, spatulas, small kids, the inside of your nose, etc.

And seriously, who has a tub of cookie mix for more than 3 months?

@FooSchnickens: Nah, I think it's like a rickroll, but with more diarrhea.

@LegoMan322: It is photoshopped.

@Zegridathes: who cooks cookies "thoroughly"? Usually you just melt them into form and take them out still soft. Its not like you burn the heck out of them.

@Etoiles: Most cookie dough ice cream these days uses cookie dough without egg.

@balthisar:

First there was the Cookie Monster...Now there is the Cook E. Coli.

UM NUM NUM NUM NUM!!!

@balthisar: You forget about those that dip their fingers into that tub of cookie dough to scoop it out and eat it raw, licking each finger individually and making kind of a slurping/popping sound.

@balthisar:
people don't typically treat cookie dough like raw meat; prepare on separate surface, wash hands thoroughly, sterilize any instruments used to prepare, not lick the spoon afterword, etc. etc. Plus ground beef found to have e. coli gets recalled too.

@Alex Chasick: Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

It's like those darn French have a different word for everything!

@Nidabriz: I love the FDA. Are they going to recommend I throw away all of the raw meat in my house for the same reason?

@Gramin: What? You mean from cosmic rays? Or from the cell-phone of the delivery guy?

I can sell you some with little tin-foil hats...

@Hoss: It is also very misleading to consumers. It gives the impression that the bacterial colony is huge, when in fact it it very small.

The bacteria would not be visible to the unaided eye. In this image the thumb would only be 2 microns wide.

I feel it is very misleading in that consumers may feel that if they do not see bacteria their food is safe to eat, which is most assuredly not the case with Escherichia coli contamination as in this instance.

I would urge Consumerist.com to remove the image post haste.

@NerdBurger_GitEmSteveDave: Trash-eaters always run that risk.

@donjumpsuit: Exactly. I doubt very many people actually put all the dough in the oven.. I know I always scarf at least a couple cookies worth before they go in. Then I cook them 1 minute less than the lowest number they give on the package and they come out to ooey and gooey and perfect.

uh Boyfriend, if you are reading this, I make all cookies from scratch. I even churn the butter... I swear.

@LegoMan322: I think it is photoshopped. That hand looks to be George Harrison's and he's been dead for years.

@feckingmorons:
I thought you were serious until I got to post haste. :D

@Cant_stop_the_rock: The recall started this morning, its been in investigation since March.

Extremely slow action, no action at all, same difference.