A Washington family has sued a supermarket chain after a 78-year-old woman allegedly died due to a severe allergic reaction from consuming mislabelled cookies.
Peggy Bryant allegedly died in April 2023 after she ate a peanut butter cookie from Safeway. It was mistakenly labelled as an oatmeal raisin cookie, her daughter Lisa Bishop told King 5 News.
Ms Bryant had just finished shopping at the Duvall store on April 7, 2023, when she reportedly indulged in an oatmeal cookie.
"My mom loved oatmeal raisin cookies," Ms Bishop said.
After tasting it, Ms Bryant realised something was not right, she told the outlet.
Ms Bishop claimed her mother "discovered that the cookie she was eating was a peanut butter cookie, and she has a fatal allergy to peanuts and nuts."
Ms Bryant was reportedly rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died within an hour.
According to her son-in-law, Greg Bishop, the King County Coroner confirmed that Ms Bryant died from anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction, and that her "blood vessels had broken down."
Now, two years later, Ms Bryant's family has filed a lawsuit against Safeway.
According to the lawsuit, Safeway's owner, Albertsons Companies, Inc., voluntarily recalled oatmeal raisin cookies sold at Safeway's Duvall location about a month after Ms Bryant died.
The Food and Drug Administration stated in a recall notice that the catastrophic mix-up was caused by an "undeclared peanut and soy allergen."
According to the agency's website, 18 cookies, sold between April 5 and April 17, 2023, were recalled.
But the family moved the federal court to hold people accountable for what was an avoidable tragedy.
"Do the right thing," Ms Bishop said. "I don't want anyone else to experience it." Labels exist for a purpose, and I don't want anyone else to die as a result of mislabelling."
In January 2024, a professional dancer, Orla Baxendale, 25, from New York City, died after suffering a severe peanut allergy reaction from eating holiday cookies from a Stew Leonard's store that were wrongly labelled, The New York Post reported.
