Contaminated ice cream, dangerous Hot Pockets, and cookie dough laced with wood chips. Nestlé owns some of the most popular food brands in the world — but they've also been responsible for some of the biggest recalls in history.
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00:00Contaminated ice cream, dangerous Hot Pockets, and cookie dough laced with wood chips.
00:05Nestle owns some of the most popular food brands in the world,
00:08but they've also been responsible for some of the biggest recalls in history.
00:13Water seems like one of those food and drink items that's impossible to mess up.
00:17And that's what I call a quality tool.
00:20But Nestle had to destroy over two million bottles of Perrier in April 2024 following
00:25an immediate warning from local authorities to stop all operations in one of its water
00:29extraction points in Vergès, France. Store Monica had previously hit the area in March,
00:33which was determined to have contaminated the water with E. coli. With the presence of E. coli
00:38posing a potential major health risk to consumers, Nestle had no choice but to
00:42scrap the water it had already bottled. Fortunately, none of these bottles had
00:46actually reached consumers yet. One of the biggest scandals to hit Nestle took place
00:50in June 2009 when it recalled 3.6 million packages of Toll House cookie dough due to E. coli.
00:56The outbreak impacted over 70 people in 30 states and caused 10 to contract hemolytic
01:01uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure. This raised eyebrows, with epidemiologist
01:06Dr. Timothy F. Jones telling The New York Times that they were baffled how E. coli,
01:10which is most often found in meat and dairy, ended up in cookie dough.
01:13A study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases found that flour was the most likely culprit.
01:18Unlike all the other ingredients, the flour was at no point treated in a way that would kill
01:22pathogens. Baking it would have likely done the trick, but why bake cookie dough when you can eat
01:26it raw instead? Nestle subsequently emphasized that its cookie dough was not intended to be
01:31eaten that way, but the study's authors insisted the fault lay in Nestle's hands.
01:35They said the company needed to reformulate their product to make it as safe as a ready-to-eat
01:39product. A decade later, Nestle did just that, introducing chocolate chip edible cookie dough,
01:45"...pasta cookie dough,"
01:47...pockets, and cookie dough laced with wood chips.
01:49Nestle owns some of the most popular food brands in the world,
01:52but they've also been responsible for some of the biggest recalls in history.
01:56Perrier water. Water seems like one of those food and drink items that's impossible to
02:01destroy over two million bottles of Perrier in April 2024, following an immediate warning
02:06from local authorities to stop all operations in one of its water extraction points in Vergès,
02:10France. Store Monica had previously hit the area in March, which was determined to have
02:14contaminated the water with E. coli, with the presence of E. coli posing a potential
02:19major health risk to consumers. Nestle had no choice but to scrap the water it had already
02:23bottled. Fortunately, none of these bottles had actually reached consumers yet.
02:27Chocolate chip cookie dough. One of the biggest scandals to hit Nestle took place in June 2009,
02:32when it recalled "...pasta cookie dough due to E. coli." The outbreak impacted over 70 people
02:37in 30 states and caused 10 to contract hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure.
02:42This raised eyebrows, with epidemiologist Dr. Timothy F. Jones telling The New York Times
02:47that they were baffled how E. coli, which is most often found in meat and dairy,
02:55ended up in cookie dough. A study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases found that flour
03:00was the most likely culprit. Unlike all the other ingredients, the flour was at no point treated in
03:05a way that would kill pathogens. Baking it would have likely done the trick, but why bake cookie
03:09bread? Nestle subsequently emphasized that its cookie dough was not intended to be eaten that
03:14way. But the study's authors insisted the fault lay in Nestle's hands. They said the company
03:18needed to reformulate their product to make it as safe as a ready-to-eat product. Seven years later,
03:23Nestle did just that, introducing chocolate chip edible cookie dough.
03:26But that wasn't the end of Nestle's cookie dough woes. In August 2023,
03:31consumers looking forward to chocolate chip cookies discovered wood chips inside their dough
03:35instead. Nobody was injured, and Nestle swiftly recalled "...can bake cookie dough."
03:39Buttoni Fresh Up Pizzas
03:41In 2022, an E. coli outbreak swept across France,
03:44causing 50 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome and killing two young children.
03:48The outbreak was traced back to the dough of Fresh Up Frozen Pizzas from Buttoni,
03:52one of the many brands in Nestle's portfolio. An immediate recall notice
03:56affected all Fresh Up Frozen Pizzas in France, plus Slovenia and Luxembourg.
04:00There were some serious...
04:02Ah, chicken! Mess you up!
04:05It closed down the plant in Cautry, France, that was involved in the outbreak.
04:08It also agreed to pay compensation to the victims. A year later,
04:12Nestle France was facing criminal charges.
04:14Hot Pockets Premium Pepperoni Pizza
04:16In January 2021, Nestle was forced to recall approximately over 750,000 pounds of Hot
04:22Pockets Premium Pepperoni Pizza. The issue? Four complaints from customers who'd started
04:26chowing down on their Hot Pockets, only to find tiny shards of glass and hard plastic in their
04:31food. Unsurprisingly, one of these customers also reported a minor oral injury. In the grand scheme
04:36of things, Nestle was lucky that the D*** Food Safety and Inspection Service declared it as a
04:40Class 1 recall, in which there's a reasonable probability that the product may cause serious
04:45health issues or even death. Nestle-branded ice cream
04:48In 2021, Nestle recalled 46 different varieties of ice cream in Spain after its ice cream
04:53manufacturer, Frineri, discovered ethylene oxide, which has been linked to certain types of cancer,
04:58in its stabilizing additive. The ice creams affected were sold under Milka,
05:02Oreo, and various other banners. Frineri emphasized that there were only trace amounts
05:06of ethylene oxide in each product, so it didn't pose serious health risks. But it
05:10did also admit that there was a possible risk for those who undertook, quote,
05:14contamination.
05:15Cuisine Baked Chicken
05:16In December 2020, tiny pieces of hard white plastic somehow finessed their way into boxes
05:21of Lean Cuisine Baked Chicken, one of many varieties of frozen meals offered by the Nestle-owned brand.
05:26Five consumers reported digging into the plastic by the time Nestle initiated its recall,
05:30which affected a whopping 92,206 pounds of the frozen meals. Fortunately, nobody reported any
05:36injuries from a side of plastic with their chicken and potatoes.
05:39DiGiorno, Lean Cuisine, and Stouffer's products
05:42It's rare that you hear someone telling you not to eat spinach, but that was exactly what Nestle
05:46did in March 2016. A major recall impacted products at Stouffer's due to complaints of
05:51glass in the food. All the affected products had the leafy green superfood in common.
05:55While the products in question were manufactured at various spots around the U.S.,
05:59a spokesperson for Nestle later confirmed to ABC that the spinach all came from the same source.
06:04Luckily, nobody reported an actual injury from the glass.
06:07Roughly three million packages were recalled,
06:09with consumers asked to throw out or return their frozen meals regardless.
06:13Maggi Instant Noodles
06:15Maggi may have been founded in Switzerland, but these days, the brand, renowned for its
06:19instant noodles and soups. 2015, however, the brand's noodles were found to contain a lead
06:24concentration of 17.2 parts per million in each packet, nearly seven times the permissible amount.
06:29Nestle was subsequently forced to pull all Maggi products off the shelves in India,
06:33with the recall proving challenging for logistical reasons. The company maintained
06:37that the tests were inaccurate and its lead levels were safe. After multiple additional
06:41rounds of testing, Maggi returned to grocery stores in November of that year,
06:45but not before costing Nestle a reported $120 chocolate chip ice cream.
06:49When Nestle recalled 10,000 packages of Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip
06:53ice cream in 2014, it wasn't because glass, wood, or plastic had worked their way into each tub.
06:58Instead, it was feared that those with a peanut allergy might get their hands on
07:02the ice cream instead. Nestle realized it had mismatched the flavors and nutritional
07:06information on the ice cream. The brand discovered that its 14-ounce cartons,
07:09labeled as Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip, actually contained Haagen-Dazs.
07:13Italy's Ministry of Agriculture claimed to have confiscated 30 million liters of the baby formula.
07:18It was a serious allergic reaction if they consumed the ice cream,
07:21hence the urgency to recall all tubs.
07:23Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese
07:25Some recalls can have a huge knock-on effect on other food products. The Hot Pockets recall
07:29of 2014 is a great example. The recall came in the wake of a bigger announcement from Rancho
07:34Feeding Corporation, a California slaughterhouse that ceased all operations after being accused
07:39of buying and processing potentially cancerous cows for meat. As per the USDA, this left the
07:43finished product unfit. 2.7 million pounds of beef were recalled, and multiple brands were
07:48affected, including Philly Steak & Cheese Hot Pockets. Nestle recalled a total of 238,000 cases.
07:54Buttoni Beef Ravioli & Beef Tortellini
07:57Back in 2013, Europe was plunged into the depths of a horse meat scandal. Multiple meat items were
08:02exposed for not containing 100 percent beef as advertised, with a significant percentage of each
08:07product actually composed of horse. While the scandal was primarily centered on items sold
08:11in Irish and British supermarkets, other countries weren't totally immune from the fallout.
08:15When it comes to Nestle,
08:16it's not a big deal, but it's not a big deal.