A 78-year-old Washington mother died months before she was due to celebrate her 60th wedding anniversary after eating a mislabeled cookie from her local grocery store, her family alleged.
Peggy Bryant suffered a fatal allergic reaction when she consumed a store-brand peanut butter cookie that was labeled as an oatmeal raisin cookie in April 2023, her daughter Lisa Bishop told King 5 News on Thursday.
Bryant had purchased the cookies from supermarket chain Safeway in Duvall, Wash., but noticed something was wrong after she took a bite of the treat.
“My mom loved Oatmeal raisin cookies,” Bishop said. “She realized that the cookie she was eating was actually a peanut butter cookie and she’s deathly allergic to peanuts.
She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died an hour later.
Greg Bishop, Bryant’s son-in-law, said that the King County Coroner ruled she died from anaphylaxis — a life-threatening allergic reaction — and that her “blood vessels had basically broken down.”
On Thursday, Bryant’s family revealed they filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Safeway.
Nearly one month after Bryant died, Albertsons Companies, Inc., which owns Safeway, issued a voluntary recall of the oatmeal raisin cookies sold at Safeway’s Duvall location due to an “undeclared peanut and soy allergen,” according to a recall notice by the Food and Drug Administration.
The recall on the agency’s website affected 18-count cookies sold between April 5 and April 17, 2023.
“We have received a report that a package of cookies was labeled as Oatmeal Raisin but may have contained Peanut Butter Cookies,” the recall read. “As a result, peanuts and soy were not listed within the ingredient statement. The recalled cookies were packaged in clear plastic containers available within the store’s bakery department.”
The recall added, “There has been one report of a serious adverse event,” but it did not specifically name Bryant.
The Post contacted Albertsons Companies, Inc. for comment.
The family’s lawsuit reportedly suggested that Bryant’s death was a preventable tragedy.
“The last few minutes of my mom’s life were tragic and awful and painful,” Lisa Bishop said.
“Do the right thing. 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.”
In January 2024, a New York City professional dancer died after she ate incorrectly labeled holiday cookies from a Stew Leonards supermarket.
Órla Baxendale, 25, suffered from a severe peanut allergic reaction and was unable to recover because her EpiPen reportedly was ineffective, her family’s lawyer claimed.
In a scathing lawsuit, Baxendale’s family accused the store of “gross negligence and reckless indifference to the rights of others and an intentional wanton violation of those rights” by professionals who failed to update the ingredient label.
Baxendale’s family and Stew Leonard’s reached a settlement in January 2025, according to the Connecticut Post.
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