This week I’m beginning a list of food products that haven’t been recalled due to E. Coli contamination. Nestlé’s Toll House brand almost made it, but, alas, its cookie dough appears to have come down with a curious case of E. Coli, and the company is advising customers to drop the plastic package and step away from the addictive treat. (Many, no doubt, will choose to continue eating while they dial their personal-injury lawyers.)

The news is troubling on a few levels. First, I enjoy cookie dough immensely, so it’s a psychological blow to hear that so much of it will be thrown in the trash. Second, we’ve heard the terms “E. Coli” and “salmonella” more times in the past year than should be allowable. Third, the recall provides ammunition to regulators, which can only mean that things will get hairier for food manufacturers pretty soon.

I don’t profess to know why food contamination cases keep popping up, but I do know that by the time the related coverage reaches D.C., it sounds a lot like legislation. Today’s New York Times coverage of the cookie dough scare contains this:

Advocates said the recall should be a spur to action in Congress on legislation to overhaul the food safety system.

“If there was ever any doubt that we’ve reached a crisis, this should provide the proof,” said Sarah Klein, a staff lawyer at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

She must enjoy cookie dough herself, since this seems to be her tipping point. Yet, while food manufacturers will protest any closer scrutiny, as the sicknesses and deaths mount, it becomes less tenable to do so.

At Managing Automation we’ve covered some interesting advances in product quality monitoring, especially in the case of outsourced manufacturing. There are more tools now than ever to ensure quality in the production process. On the flip side, there’s a portfolio of logistics offerings that make product recalls much more effective and easier to manage. But shouldn’t we work harder to avoid them in the first place?