Blue Bell Issues 3rd Recall Over Listeria-Contaminated Ice Cream
The Broken Arrow, OK. Blue Bell Ice Cream plant has been shut down temporarily over an outbreak of listeria.
The company announced it was shuttering the plant operations out of an immense amount caution in order to find the potential cause for the contamination.
Blue Bell said the Food and Drug Administration is examining the facility, and it was working alongside the agency to find the cause.
Public health officials have warned consumers not to eat a certain three-ounce serving of Blue Bell chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ice cream, made at the Broken Arrow plant because of possible listeria contamination. The affected containers have lettering markings of O, P, Q, R.S, or T, which can be found behind the coding date.
The affected products, which have been recalled now, are not sold in retail stores; but shipped in bulk to institutions like hospitals in 23 states.
This is the company’s third time to take action after a Kansas hospital reported a listeria outbreak upon serving the ice cream.
Last month, 10 Blue Bell products had been recalled from its Brenham, Tx. production line. The company added the three-ounce up servicing to its recall.
This recall is the first ever for the company in its 108 years of doing business. It started after five patients in Wichita’s Via Christi St. Francis hospital fell sick to listeria while they were in the hospital between December 2013 and January 2015. Officials confirmed that four milkshakes had been prepared with the contaminated Blue Bell product. Three patients had died from the disease.
Listeriosis, commonly called listeria, is a deadly infection that is the result of eating contaminated food with the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said those most at risk for listeria includes: people with weak immune systems, older adults, newborns and pregnant women.
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