Did you know that one in four Americans are sickened by food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli, each year?

Federal Health officials believe 80 people in 31 states are sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7.

Linda Rivera, from Las Vegas, Nevada, was eating spoonfuls of the Nestle cookie dough in May 2009 and has been hospitalized since. Her health started to downturn 7 days after eating the cookie dough. Her kidneys shut down and she went into septic shock. The doctors had to remove part of her colon, which has become contaminated. Soon, her gallbladder was inflamed and had to be excised. Shortly after, her liver stopped functioning. Now, Linda cannot speak. It is unclear exactly what is causing her loss of speech, although the toxin produced by the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria can attack the brain.

The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and nine others who developed a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome. A 4-year old girl from South Carolina had a stroke and is now partially paralyzed.

Last week, packages of the cookie dough returned to supermarkets after a two-month absence as the company scrubbed their production plant, bought new ingredients and started making dough again.

In July, the House approved legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration broad new powers and place new responsibilities on food producers. The bill would speed up the ability of health officials to track down the source of an outbreak and give the government the power to mandate a recall, rather than rely on food producers to voluntarily pull tainted products from the shelves.