It’s supposed to be chocolate chip cookie dough and not wood chip cookie dough. So after some customers reported finding wood chips in one of Nestlé’s cookie dough products, Nestlé USA effectively said, “D’oh,” and initiated a recall. They are voluntarily recalling two batches of their 16.5 ounce Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “break and bake” Bar products, according to an August 10 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) release of the company’s announcement.
This doesn’t mean that Nestlé USA is putting the brakes on all of their “break and bake” products. You should be fine if you happen to be sitting on the couch and watching Netflix with a tub of cookie dough. That’s because the recall won’t affect Nestlé’s other varieties of refrigerated cookie dough in “break and bake” bars, rolls, or tubs or their edible cookie dough. And the recall bell isn’t going to toll for Nestlé’s other Toll House products. No, it’s only going to encompass particular 16.5 ounce Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough “break and bake” Bar products that were produced on April 24 and 25, 2023, and have the following batch numbers: 311457531K and 311557534K.
These recalled products should have “Best By Dates” of 8/22/23 and 10/23/23 listed on their packaging. So, if you take a look at your package—your cookie dough package, that is—and find the aforementioned batch numbers, the “Best By” dates for these batches should in essence be “never.” That’s because wood would add the wrong type of fiber to your cookies.
There are multiple reasons why you shouldn’t eat cookies with wood in them. It’s the same reason why doctors don’t recommend that you gnaw on wooden tables, munch on toothpicks as if they were French Fries, or shove door stops into your mouth. Leave such stuff to beavers. While beavers have microbes in their guts that can help them digest at least some of the plant cellulose that end up going down their gastrointestinal (GI) tracts, your gut doesn’t have such microbes. Wood consists of a cellulose that’s indigestible by humans. Pieces of wood may still end up passing completely through your GI tract to you-know-where. But along the way, it can get caught up and end up damaging different things along the way, ranging from your teeth to your esophagus to your stomach and your intestines, which can result in various holes, tears, and blockages.
Plus any chip off the block of wood can carry all sorts of bad stuff such as paint, varnish, and harmful microbes. For example, certain types of fungi can secrete mycotoxins that can make you nauseous and vomit and even damage your liver and kidneys.
Therefore, if you do have the products included in this recall, either discard the cookie dough or return it for a refund of the dough that you used to buy the cookies. Don’t bake them into cookies and eat them. Otherwise, you may end up tossing your cookies in the wrong way. Or having other problems.
To date, though, no one has reported getting sick from eating the products affected by the recall. Nestlé USA did add that they have initiated the recall “out of an abundance of caution” as opposed to a “teeny, weeny, tidbit of caution.”