WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A professional dancer in New York City died after she ate an incorrectly labeled cookie containing peanuts from the popular supermarket Stew Leonard's.
Orla Baxendale passed away on January 11, 2024. Orla, a dancer, was just 25 years old. She went into an anaphylactic shock resulting from a severe allergic reaction to a Vanilla Florentine cookie, a law firm representing the family said in a statement.
Orla consumed a cookie manufactured by Cookies United and sold by Stew Leonard's, which contained undisclosed peanuts.
This tragic incident led to the recall of the Vanilla Florentine Cookies from Stew Leonard's stores in Danbury and Newington, CT, from November 6 to December 31, 2023.
'Preliminary investigation has revealed that Orla's death occurred due to the gross negligence and reckless conduct of the manufacturer and/or sellers who failed to properly identify the contents of the cookie on the packaging. This failure in proper disclosure has led to this devastating yet preventable outcome,' the law firm said.
Stew Leonard Jr., the chain's president and CEO, said his company's chief safety officer was never informed of a recipe change in the cookies.
'We have a very rigorous process that we use as far as labeling. We take labels very seriously, especially peanuts,' Leonard added. 'And our chief safety officer never was notified, we didn't change the label, hence we sold about 500 packages of these cookies over the holiday.'
Stew Leonard's said customers 'with nut allergies should bring back the product to customer service for a full refund.'
Meanwhile, the wholesaler, Cookies United, claims that it did notify the change in ingredients with the regional supermarket chain months before Baxendale's death.
'Stew Leonard's claimed in an earlier press release that 'the cookies contain peanuts, which was an ingredient not disclosed to Stew Leonard's by the manufacturer,' United Cookies wrote in a statement.
'Unfortunately, considering the tragedy of these circumstances, we need to point out that Stew Leonard's was notified by Cookies United in July of 2023 that this product now contains peanuts, and all products shipped to them have been labeled accordingly.'
The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Food, Standards and Product Safety Division (DCP), shared that it is investigating the deadly mishap with officials in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, the Food and Drug Administration, and Stew Leonard's.
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