(WTNH) – A woman from New York died after eating a mislabeled cookie from a Connecticut supermarket earlier this month, according to a law firm planning to file a civil complaint on her behalf.
The deceased, identified as Órla Baxendale, a 25-year-old dancer, died earlier this month on Jan. 11, the law firm said.
“Órla’s passing stemmed from an unfortunate incident involving the consumption of a cookie manufactured by Cookies United and sold by Stew Leonard’s, which contained undisclosed peanuts,” reads a portion of a statement from the law firm of Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf.
The law firm identified Baxendale as the victim of fatal anaphylactic shock after Connecticut’s departments of Public Health (DPH) and Consumer Protection (DCP) shared a warning/recall notice concerning the cookies. In the notice, the department said the person who died was reported to have eaten the cookies at a social gathering in Connecticut.
The department did not directly attribute the victim’s death to the ingestion of the mislabeled cookies, but instead said the incident “may be associated” with the food item.
The cookies, advertised as Vanilla Florentine Cookies, contained undeclared peanuts, the Connecticut Department of Health confirmed. They were sold at the Newington and Danbury locations of Stew Leonard’s, a regional grocery chain with a handful of locations across Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
The cookies themselves were manufactured by a New York-based company called Cookies United, and sold under the Stew Leonard’s name.
Stew Leonard’s has since removed all products produced by Cookies United from sale, the DCP said.
“This is a heartbreaking tragedy that should never have happened,” said DCP Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli in a statement included with the notice. “DCP Food Investigators are working hard with the Department of Public Health, local health departments, officials in New York State and New Jersey, the Food and Drug Administration and Stew Leonard’s to determine how this error happened and prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future.”
Customers with nut allergies are being urged to discard of any cookies involved with the recall, or return them to Stew Leonard’s for a refund. More information on the recalled product is available at the Connecticut Department of Public Health website and the Stew Leonard’s website.
The law firm representing Baxendale has confirmed plans to file a civil complaint on her behalf, though no official complaint had been filed as of Thursday morning, a representative told Nexstar.
