Orla Baxendale, from Lancashire, bought the Vanilla Florentine Cookie at a store in Connecticut, unaware of its nut content.
Ms Baxendale, 25, was treated with her anti-allergy EpiPen injector but it was not enough to counter the severe reaction, said her lawyers Gair Gair Conason. She died from anaphylactic shock on January 11.
The firm said: “Orla was very careful and hyper-vigilant about everything she ate and always thoroughly checked the ingredients.
“In addition, she always carried an EpiPen with her and surrounded herself with people who know how to administer one.
“After she began to have an anaphylactic reaction, an EpiPen was used but due to the severity of her allergy it was not effective.”
The Stew Leonard’s shop has recalled the batch of cookies made by Cookies United and sold at its Danbury and Newington sites.
Meghan Bell, the chain’s director of public relations, said: “The cookies contain undeclared peanuts and eggs. People with an allergy or severe sensitivity to peanuts or eggs run the risk of serious, life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these. One death has been reported that may be associated with the mislabelled product.”
Cookies United said it told Stew Leonard’s in July that the product now had peanuts.
The store owner said: “It’s a sad day for us. We’re just all devastated.
“I have four daughters, one of them is in their 20s. I can imagine how that family feels right now, and we’re all just very, very sad about this whole thing.”
Ms Baxendale had moved to New York to pursue a dance career.
An online obituary described her as “an exquisite ballet, contemporary, and Irish step dancer” who was the “embodiment of enthusiasm, strength and beauty”.
Her family said they are “devastated by this unimaginable loss”.
Bryan Cafferelli, commissioner of the Connecticut department of consumer protection, called Ms Baxendale’s death “a heart-breaking tragedy”.
He said that his state agency was working with local and federal officials as well as other states in an effort to “prevent a similar tragedy from occurring in the future”. In May 2022 a Stew Leonard’s branch in Norwalk, Connecticut, recalled some fresh coffee products over concerns that they might have been contaminated with nuts.
The store recalled all bagged, loose or roasted ground coffee and coffee beans of all flavours and varieties bought at the store. At the time, its PR chief Ms Bell had commented: “We were experimenting with a double-roasted pistachio nut and thought the coffee roaster would impart a coffee-roasted flavour, but didn’t realise it could have possibly contaminated the next batch of coffee that was roasted.”
