Despite Concern, Blue Bell Says Ice Cream Is Safe
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HOUSTON (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - Blue Bell Creameries is reassuring customers that its ice cream is safe, even as it tries to determine if listeria has once again been found at one of its facilities.
The Texas company is returning products to stores following contamination last year that was linked to three deaths and prompted a national recall.
But the company announced Friday that the bacteria may have been detected at one of its plants, though it didn't say which plant. The company has three plants, in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma.
In April, Blue Bell recalled its products after its ice cream was linked to 10 listeria cases, including three deaths in Kansas. Listeria bacteria can cause serious illness, especially in older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.
Just last Thursday, Blue Bell released the following statement on its enhanced procedures at its production facilities:
As we complete our final phase of distribution, we wanted to update our loyal customers on what has been going on in our production facilities. We continue to strictly adhere to our enhanced operations, policies, employee training and cleaning procedures to help give regulatory agencies and the public assurance that all aspects of our facilities and operations are resulting in a safe product.
We continually reinforce to our employees that eliminating all potential sources of contamination is our number one priority so that we can stay committed to producing safe and high quality products for customers to enjoy.
Because Listeria is commonly found in the natural environment, no manufacturer can ever assume it can be entirely eradicated. We have worked closely with our expert team of microbiologists to develop an enhanced, robust testing system specifically designed for each facility to identify any possible presence of Listeria in the production environment, including extensive environmental testing and testing every single batch of ice cream we make before it is sold to customers.
We are pleased that our enhanced environmental and product testing procedures are working. We have identified locations where suspected Listeria species may be present in our facility, and we continue to extensively clean and sanitize those areas and make additional enhancements to the facility and our procedures based on the environmental test results. To confirm that our robust environmental program is effective, and that our "seek and destroy" goals are being achieved, we expect to periodically find microbiological indications in our facilities. Since our plants reopened, we have tested and will continue to test every batch of ice cream produced, and no products produced have tested positive for Listeria.
We will continue to work closely with our regulatory agencies, as we have throughout this process, and our number one priority will continue to be making sure our products are safe for our customers to enjoy.
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