Mom Shares Food Packaging Warning After Her Teen Daughter Dies From Chips Ahoy Cookie
A Florida mon is now taking it upon herself to warn others about food labels, following the death of her 15-year-old daughter. Alexi Stafford, who was allergic to peanuts, accidentally ate a cookie containing peanut butter at a friend's house after mistaking them for the usual chocolate chip variety.
The teen was at the house of her friend on June 25 when she made the fatal mistake of eating a cookie from an open pack of Chips Ahoy, as her mother shared on Facebook. According to Kellie Travers-Stafford, it's likely that her daughter mistook the cookies for the Chips Ahoy Soft Chunky original variant which would have been safe for her to eat.
As she shared in the photos included, the packaging for the original and the peanut butter variants of the chewy Chips Ahoy variety were the same red color, with the difference marked by a small label that would have been hidden by the top flap when pulled back.
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"I want to share our story with everyone because we want to spread awareness. The company has different colored packaging to indicate chunky, chewy, or regular but NO screaming warnings about such a fatal ingredient to many people. Especially children," the mourning mother wrote.
Alexi made it to her home after eating the cookie but she was overtaken by anaphylactic shock, a deadly complication of a severe allergic reaction, not long after. The family gave her two doses of EpiPens to bring back her breathing to normal, but the girl died an hour and a half after eating the cookie, according to Today.
Nabisco's parent company Mondelez International issued a statement in response to comments posted on social media and the comments on their Chips Ahoy! Facebook page. "We were very saddened to hear about this situation," their message began.
"We always encourage consumers to read the packaging labeling when purchasing and consuming any of our products for information about product ingredients, including presence of allergens," their statement added.
