DA'S OFFICE TURNS UP HEAT ON COOKIE FIRM.Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer Jeanne Kravitz's home-baked oatmeal-raisin and chocolate chip Chocolate chips are small chunks of chocolate. They are often sold in a round, flat-bottomed teardrop shape (similar to a Hershey's Kiss). They are available in numerous sizes, from large to miniature, but are usually around 1 cm in diameter. cookies were tasty hits at the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and Westside stores where they were sold through 1995. Then the cookie police came knocking. A lawsuit filed Tuesday claims the Woodland Hills woman baked her Oh! Kay Kookies in contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. conditions, storing ingredients in the garage of her home where authorities found rat feces feces or excrement or stools Solid bodily waste discharged from the colon through the anus during defecation. Normal feces are 75% water. The rest is about 30% dead bacteria, 30% indigestible food matter, 10–20% cholesterol and other fats, , ceiling insulation particles and a working toilet. The District Attorney's Office, whose Consumer Protection Division filed the action, is seeking fines and could ask a judge to put her out of the commercial cookie-baking business altogether. Kravitz said she is surprised the suit was filed because she had been seeking a settlement. She now has state and county licenses, she added, and rents a baking facility where her cookies are made. Kravitz said she only baked cookies in her garage for a couple of months two years ago. Her attorney, Dale Galipo of Encino, said Kravitz worked out of her garage only temporarily, in the aftermath of the Northridge Earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6. . ``I was not in compliance at that time, but due to circumstances,'' Kravitz told the Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. . ``I was trying to survive. I was trying to make a living.'' ``I'm completely legitimate,'' she added. ``Why ruin me now?'' That's the way the cookie crumbles, prosecutors say. ``She's making them legally now,'' said Deputy District Attorney John Luder, ``but for 10 years she didn't.'' ``We told her twice to recall the cookies and she didn't,'' Luder said. Authorities contend that Kravitz allegedly baked cookies in her garage between 1986 and 1995. However, Luder said the statutory period covered by the lawsuit only goes back four years. Luder said he had no complaints of people getting sick from the cookies. Prosecutors said health officials sought repeatedly to get Kravitz to voluntarily comply with health and safety standards Safety standards are standards designed to ensure the safety of products, activities or processes, etc. They may be advisory or compulsory and are normally laid down by an advisory or regulatory body that may be either voluntary or statutory. , and then served a warrant on April 12, 1995. A second warrant was served a month later when it was learned she was still baking cookies, Luder said. Since May 1995, Kravitz moved her business to a commercial baking establishment in Van Nuys, getting appropriate business permits and complying with inspections. Luder said he wants to ensure that Kravitz remains sweet on the new, cleaner working arrangement. ``If I had to choose between buying a cookie that was manufactured by a known company and packaged, as opposed to a cookie in a bottle jar made by a company that had a history of noncompliance noncompliance failure of the owner to follow instructions, particularly in administering medication as prescribed; a cause of a less than expected response to treatment. noncompliance , I know what I would choose to buy,'' Luder said. ``But we're not the thought police, we're not the taste police, we're not the cookie police,'' said Luder, who then added: ``Well, we are the cookie police.'' |
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