Tragic Cookie Recipe Tweak Leads to Death of NYC Ballet Dancer

In a heart­break­ing inci­dent, a sim­ple cook­ie recipe change led to the death of a 25-year-old New York City bal­let dancer in the “prime of her life.” 

Órla Bax­en­dale, a UK native liv­ing in NYC, died from ana­phy­lac­tic shock after eat­ing Vanil­la Flo­ren­tine Cook­ies from Con­necti­cut gro­cery chain Stew Leonard’s that con­tained unde­clared peanuts.

Accord­ing to a law­suit filed by Bax­en­dale’s par­ents, the cook­ies had pre­vi­ous­ly con­tained soy nuts, but six months before her death, the man­u­fac­tur­er Cook­ies Unit­ed had noti­fied the gro­cer about the ingre­di­ent change to peanuts. 

How­ev­er, Stew Leonard’s alleged­ly “ignored the email and nev­er changed the label or the nutri­tion fact pan­el and nev­er prop­er­ly updat­ed the packaging.”

Bax­en­dale, who was “hyper-vig­i­lant about every­thing she ate” and car­ried an EpiPen, expe­ri­enced a severe reac­tion that the med­ica­tion could not stop. She died on Jan­u­ary 11, 2024 while prepar­ing for a dance performance.

The Bax­en­dale fam­i­ly is now seek­ing dam­ages of at least $15,000, high­light­ing the dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences that can result from food aller­gy over­sights. The case under­scores the crit­i­cal need for accu­rate label­ing and bet­ter edu­ca­tion around ana­phy­lax­is, which claims 500–1,000 lives annu­al­ly in the US.

With one in three US adults hav­ing at least one aller­gy and 2.5% of chil­dren aller­gic to peanuts, this tragedy serves as a sober­ing reminder of the life-threat­en­ing risks food aller­gies pose. The Bax­en­dales hope their daugh­ter’s sto­ry will inspire greater aware­ness and pre­cau­tions to pre­vent sim­i­lar dev­as­tat­ing out­comes in the future.