Inspection reports from a Nestlé USA cookie dough factory show the company declined several times in the past five years to provide FDA inspectors with complaint logs, pest-control records and other information.
The records were made public after Nestlé's Toll House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough was discovered to be the likely culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in 29 states. The CDC and the FDA are investigating the outbreak.
The company declined to allow FDA investigators access to certain documents in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
In a statement, Nestlé said that it rejects any implication that it did not cooperate with the FDA and that it provided all information required under law.