The color of the object is different that what is shown in the layers panel.

[Brian Mort]

Hello.

I'm not sure how I caused this or why Adobe isn't changing the color of the object in the layers panel. Further why Adobe is allowing this to happen? How can I prevent this from happening in the future?

I'm assuming I used the eye dropper to change the blue letters to white. In my design process the artwork was first created with the blue color. I'm including the Appearance and Layers panel in my screen shot.
This print job resulted in a print error and the need to reprint the job. The blue color is what was printed when the white should have been printed.
Thank you for your assistance.

[Brian Mort]

If I change the object to a compound path the color in the layers panel changes to white. If I pickup a different color with the eyedropper the object color changes but the layer color doesn't change. -- Thanks.

[Doug A Roberts]

The group itself has a white fill. The individual objects still have blue fills. The eyedropper is applying to what you have selected, i.e. the group. If you create a compound path, the group is removed.

[Monika Gause]

In this video you'll find an in-depth discussion of the issues: https://youtu.be/YZooJyG2UT4