It’s finally been confirmed that there was E. coli in Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough. It was the chocolate cookie dough.

But wait! It gets better!

Health officials still do not know how E. coli 0157, a bacterium that lives in cattle intestines, ended up in a product that seems so unlikely to contain it. The risk usually associated with cookie dough is salmonella, a bacterium that can be found in raw eggs. None of the ingredients in the dough — eggs, milk, flour, chocolate, butter — is known to host E. coli 0157.

Federal investigators spent more than a week at the Danville plant and did not detect contamination in the equipment or among workers, Acheson said. “It raises the likelihood that it was an ingredient,” he said. “And it really means that industry has to be constantly vigilant, because foods we think of as low risk could be contaminated with a deadly pathogen.”

I would say that “eggs, milk, flour, chocolate, butter” possibly being contaminated with E. coli is disturbing. I find it especially disturbing seeing as I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow, and all those things are at the top of my grocery list. Where does Nestlé source these ingredients? How do I know the eggs, milk, flour, chocolate, and butter isn’t from the same sources? Factory food is shipped around and mixed together, and factories sell the same products under different brand names, so their is the potential there might very well be something in my local store with so little risk of killing me as to be negligible … which might actually kill me.

And now, step into my mind as I contemplate tomorrow’s shopping trip:

The eggs I buy are regional, from somewhere in Texas. I doubt they send eggs from Texas to Virginia for making raw cooking dough. I especially doubt they send free range, yard nesting chicken eggs from Texas to Virginia for any reason at all. These are special eggs, which is why I pay three times more for them per dozen. These eggs are not the sort used in mass produced refrigerator cookie dough. So, my eggs are most likely safe to buy and eat.

The milk I buy is also regionally produced. Now milk is one of those things that does get shipped around and mixed together before packaging and selling, but once again, I get special milk –free range, no added hormones, no antibiotics. This is not milk used in mass produced refrigerator cookie dough. So, my milk is safe to buy and drink.

The butter I buy is yet again regionally produced. But in this case, they were bought by a large creamery, and there’s no way to be sure they don’t also produced wholesale product as well as retail brands. I am suspicious enough of the butter to put off buying butter. We’ll make do with the two sticks I already have. Olive oil is healthier anyway.

The flour I buy comes from Vermont. It’s a better flour and a well-loved and respected flour among bakers. I would say I trust my flour supply to be safe. I hope so, because I have to buy flour, and the only other options at my store are far more suspicious. The flour they make is very nice, and I hope it’s too nice to use in mass produced refrigerator cookie dough. So, I guess I buy the flour and have faith in a brand I like.

But let’s talk about the chocolate, shall we? I know that Nestlé sources its chocolate for its refrigerated cookie dough from itself. Says so on the package. I need to get chocolate chips for cookies. I usually buy Nestlé. Nothing could compel me to buy any chocolate of any kind branded with the Nestlé name tomorrow. The added problem is that Nestlé is such a large producer of chocolate, there is no way to tell which chocolate or chocolate chips aren’t in some way connected to them without a whole lot of research I don’t want to do. Therefore, no chocolate of any kind. Not even candy. No matter the brand. It’ll suck, but getting sick would suck worse.

Does all this sound crazy and paranoid to you? I’m not overly obsessive about this stuff, but I do try to keep up with who is making the food I eat, and which big company is putting out some secondary brand without overtly mentioning they do … or who large companies sell ingredients or product to for reuse or repackaging. The pet food recall brought home loud and clear the facts that one small company can have far-ranging and devastating effects across multiples of brands at multiples of companies, and that large companies put out crappy store brand and generic products at the same plants using some of the same ingredients. These things are true for the human food supply just as they are true for the pet and animal feed supply.

It may sound crazy and paranoid to think this much about what groceries to buy, but to me, it’s modern age common sense, considering all the recalls there are every year on all manner of edibles and the disgusting crap being shipped in from elsewhere … and just how awful most of the food production process really is. Sure, it’s not The Jungle anymore, but it’s really not that much better, at least not for the animals and plants (or the consumers). I shouldn’t have to wonder what thing in the grocery store may next be recalled for making people sick. I should be able to walk into the grocery store and buy anything at all with no concern about it being safely edible.

We don’t live in that world. We live in a world where corporations are willing to cut corners, lie, cheat, and ignore problems, all in the name of that almighty dollar. That puts the burden on the consumer to stay vigilant and be knowledgeable about how their food is made and where their food comes from. I could write posts all day every day trying to convince people to eat more locally and regionally, preach about following the corporate trails to determine who is making what and who they do business with, but I am not an evangelist. It’s a decision every consumer has to make for themselves.

A few years ago, I didn’t give a damn about where my food came from. I bought whatever was on sale or brands I recognized as “big” and pressed on with the eating. Then there was one recall too many and too close together, and I decided to try something different: eating locally and regionally grown foods. Yes, we pay more for our food, and yes, sometimes eating locally also means eating seasonally and so the diet can get monotonous at times, and yes, it means I sometimes have to do some research before buying something at a grocery store, and yes, sometimes it means we don’t get to eat something we want to eat, but I’m fairly confident our food won’t make us sick. If it does, I know exactly who to go to to complain … and they don’t live in China. It seems a small price to pay –being thought of as a little crazy or paranoid– for not having to wonder if something I ate will be recalled tomorrow (or just make a few of us sick and never gets recalled at all).

So, I’m not going to tell anyone “you should eat like we do,” but I do think everyone should think about it and decide if they can make a few changes to their buying and eating habits and become more aware of the source of their food, or decide they don’t give a damn and trust luck and statistics to be on their side. I never trust luck or statistics when health and life are on the line. Do you?