Cookie-dough E.coli has FDA stumped

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2009 | by Elizabeth Weise

Federal officials plan to stay in a Virginia food plant associated with a national food-borne outbreak "as long as it takes" to solve this mystery: How did E. coli O157:H7, most commonly associated with raw hamburger, get in refrigerated cookie dough?

"That's the $64,000 question," says David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's assistant commissioner for food safety.

The outbreak appears to be linked to consuming uncooked Nestle refrigerated and frozen Toll House cookie dough products.

It has sickened 70 people nationwide, 30 of whom have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No one has died.

Nestle has recalled all product produced at the plant and suspended operations there. But cookies made...