Tragic cookie mishap led to death of elderly woman after shopping at popular supermarket chain
After taking one single bite of a cookie purchased from a Safeway grocery store, an elderly Washington woman died from a severe allergic reaction - and now her family is seeking justice.
Peggy Bryant, 78, tragically died in 2023 after taking a bite of a peanut butter cookie mislabeled as an oatmeal raisin while shopping at a Safeway in Duvall. She was just months away from celebrating her 60th wedding anniversary with her high school sweetheart, King 5 News reported.
Now, two years later, Bryant's family has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the popular supermarket chain, seeking accountability for what they believe was an entirely preventable tragedy.
'The last few minutes of my mom's like were tragic and awful and painful,' Lisa Bishop, Bryant's daughter, told King 5 News.
'Do the right thing,' she added. 'I don't want it to happen to anybody else. Labels are there for a reason and I don't want anybody else to die from mislabeling.'
On April 7, 2023, Bryant had just finished shopping when she decided to open up one of her favorite treats - an oatmeal raisin cookie she purchased just minutes before.
However, after just one bite, she realized something was terribly wrong - what was supposed to be a safe-to-eat oatmeal raisin cookie, was actually filled with peanut butter.
'She realized that the cookie she was eating was actually a peanut butter cookie,' Bishop told King News. 'And she's deathly allergic to nuts, peanuts.'
Bryant was rushed to a nearby hospital, but tragically succumbed to the severe allergic reaction within the hour.
A coroner's report later confirmed that anaphylaxis - a life-threatening allergic reaction - was the cause of her death, according to her son-in-law, Greg Bishop, King News reported.
'When they got the blood results back, he said it was clearly anaphylaxis,' Greg Bishop told the outlet.
'Her blood vessels had basically broken down.'
Following Bryant's devastating death, the health department conducted an inspection and requested a recall of the mislabeled product - a directive Safeway ultimately complied with, according to the outlet.
However, Bryant's family believes they have a duty to prevent similar incidents from happening again, especially since their loved one's death could have been easily avoided by the chain.
'I knew that we just had to do something,' Lisa told King News, adding how the error forever changed their family.
'Just growing up with her, she was just always filled with joy and fun,' she recalled.
The family's lawsuit, filed in federal court, seeks accountability for the deadly mix-up and aims to highlight the critical importance of proper food labeling to prevent any further tragedies.
'Do the right thing,' Lisa asserted.
Last year, Órla Baxendale, a British ballet dancer originally from Helmshore, East Lancashire, but based in New York City, tragically went into anaphylactic shock and died after consuming vanilla Florentine cookies that contained peanuts.
The cookies, which were purchased from a Stew Leonard's store in Connecticut, were subsequently recalled due to the packaging not having a peanut allergy warning.
In May of 2024, her family filed a lawsuit, accusing the grocer and manufacturer Cookies United of being 'careless and negligent' in causing Baxendale's death.
Both companies were named in the lawsuit, along with several Stew Leonard's employees.
Baxendale, who had a severe peanut allergy, had moved to New York City from England to pursue a career as a dancer and was in 'the prime of her life', according to the lawsuit filed at the Superior Court in Waterbury.
The complaint, reviewed by DailyMail.com, stated that Baxendale had a known severe peanut allergy and she, 'like all consumers, relied upon the manufacturer and seller to properly label the package sold to the general public'.
The family's lawsuit, filed in federal court, seeks accountability for the deadly mix-up and aims to highlight the critical importance of proper food labeling to prevent any further tragedies
However, the cookies she consumed 'contained, among other things, undeclared peanuts and other known allergens', despite not being labeled as so, according to the complaint.
The suit alleged that Cookies United failed to properly label that the Florentine cookies contained peanuts prior to distribution.
According to the suit, 11 Stew Leonard's employees were 'notified by email' of the change in ingredients, including the 'addition of peanuts to the cookie recipe in July 2023, approximately six months before Baxendale's death.
The manufacturer then sent 'bulk packaging' that contained a label indicating the cookies contained allergens - including peanuts - in October that year.
However, Baxendale consumed a cookie that had not been properly labeled to indicate the ingredient change in January 2024.
She went into anaphylactic shock and an EpiPen was administered, but 'due to the severity of her allergy, it was not effective', family attorney Marijo C. Adime said in a statement at the time.
The suit accused Stew Leonard's of ignoring alerts from the manufacturer, and alleged that the store did not update product labels once it received notice of a change in ingredients.
'The failure to properly label the package prior to the distribution and sale of the Florentine Cookie(s) was grossly negligent, intentional, reckless, callous, indifferent to human life, and a wanton violation as the manufacturer and seller were required under the law to properly declare the ingredients,' the lawsuit read.
It further alleged that the systems Stew Leonard's had in place to maintain and update labels are 'broken, unreliable, inherently dangerous, undependable, untrustworthy, erratic, and deplorable'.
The lawsuit sought unspecified monetary and punitive damages.
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