A Washington woman, aged 78, tragically passed away just months before her 60th wedding anniversary due to a fatal allergic reaction. The incident occurred after she consumed a mislabeled cookie from her local grocery store, according to her family. Peggy Bryant had a severe allergy to peanuts and mistakenly ate a peanut butter cookie that was incorrectly labeled as an oatmeal raisin cookie in April 2023, as reported by her daughter, Lisa Bishop.
Bryant had bought the cookies from a Safeway supermarket in Duvall, Washington. After taking a bite, she immediately realized something was amiss. “My mom loved oatmeal raisin cookies,” Bishop shared. “She quickly realized that she was actually eating a peanut butter cookie, to which she had a deadly allergy.”
Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, Bryant passed away an hour later. The King County Coroner determined the cause of death to be anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. According to Bryant’s son-in-law, Greg Bishop, her “blood vessels had basically broken down.”
In the aftermath of this tragic incident, Bryant’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Safeway. Albertsons Companies, Inc., the parent company of Safeway, issued a voluntary recall of the oatmeal raisin cookies sold at the Duvall location nearly a month after Bryant’s death. The recall was due to an “undeclared peanut and soy allergen,” as stated in a recall notice by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA’s recall affected 18-count cookies sold between April 5 and April 17, 2023. The recall notice read, “We have received a report that a package of cookies was labeled as Oatmeal Raisin but may have contained Peanut Butter Cookies. 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 notice also mentioned a “serious adverse event,” although it did not specifically name Bryant. Albertsons Companies, Inc. has yet to comment on the incident.
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.”
This incident echoes a similar case in January 2024, when a professional dancer from New York City died after consuming holiday cookies from a Stew Leonards supermarket that were incorrectly labeled. The dancer, Órla Baxendale, 25, suffered a severe peanut allergic reaction and was unable to recover because her EpiPen reportedly was ineffective. Baxendale’s family and Stew Leonard’s reached a settlement in January 2025.