Blue Bell Ice Cream is voluntarily recalling select products due to listeria concerns, the company announced Wednesday.
According to Blue Bell, the recall is linked to ice cream made at the Sylacauga, Alabama, plant with a chocolate chip cookie dough ingredient from a third party supplier, Aspen Hills, Inc.
Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
This recall covers the following products:
| Blue Bell Ice Cream Half Gallons: | Code Dates |
| Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough | 082618226 |
| Blue Bell Cookie Two Step | 080418222, 081818224 |
| Blue Bell Ice Cream Pints: | Code Dates |
| Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough | 081518242, 082418242 |
The products can be identified by the code date found on the bottom of the carton. The products produced with the chocolate chip cookie dough pieces were distributed in the following 10 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
No illnesses have been reported to date. Blue Bell identified a potential problem through intensified internal testing and notified Aspen Hills. Aspen Hills then issued a voluntary recall of the products supplied to Blue Bell.
Blue Bell issued the following statement:
“Although our products in the marketplace have passed our test and hold program, which requires that finished product samples test negative for listeria monocytogenes, Blue Bell is initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution. This recall is being conducted in cooperation with the FDA.”
Consumers should not eat the recalled products and are encouraged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.
The recall comes after Blue Bell stopped production and distribution of its ice cream to 25 states in April after discovering the bacteria. There were 10 cases of listeria reported in four states. Three people living in Kansas later died.
For more information, see the Blue Bell press release.
