Listeria Outbreak Gives a Whole New Meaning to “Dying for Some Ice Cream”

The hits with listeria just keep on coming.

The FDA has issued recall notices recently about listeria contamination in Blue Bell ice cream, the very popular Sabra Hummus, Henry’s Farm Soybean Sprouts, Robber’s Roost Jerky, and a massive recall of a number of products containing organic spinach.

Listeria is nothing to mess around with – it can be deadly. The deaths of three people have been traced back to Bluebell ice cream.

Here are the Blue Bell products that have been voluntarily recalled by the Texas-based company:

• Individual chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream cups (sold to schools and hospitals)
• Pints of banana pudding, butter crunch, mint chocolate chip, Cookies ’n Cream, homemade vanilla, Dutch chocolate and Moo-llennium Crunch flavors of ice cream manufactured from Feb. 12 through March 27 at the Broken Arrow plant.
• Quarts of rainbow sherbet, mixed berry sherbet, and orange sherbet
• Half gallons of homemade vanilla, pistachio almond, and homemade vanilla light

Here are the details of the recall:

On April 3, 2015, Blue Bell Creameries voluntarily suspended operations at its Broken Arrow, Okla., plant to thoroughly inspect the facility due to a 3oz. institutional/food service chocolate cup that tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes and was immediately withdrawn from all outlets. That product was only available to Blue Bell’s food service and institutional accounts and was recalled along with 3oz. vanilla and strawberry institutional/food service cups.

On April 4, 2015, out of an abundance of caution, Blue Bell began working with retail outlets to remove all products produced in Broken Arrow, Okla., from their service area. These products are identified with a code date ending in O, P, Q, R, S or T located on the bottom of the carton and they are a part of the voluntary market withdrawal.

On April 7, 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration notified Blue Bell that the Banana Pudding Ice Cream pint tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. This pint was produced in the Broken Arrow, Okla., plant on February 12, 2015. Subsequently Blue Bell is recalling all products made on that one particular production line, from February 12, 2015 – March 27, 2015. These products were produced on that same line and have a code date ending in either S or T.

Listeria is an infection generally caused by consuming food contaminated with the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. The illness that people get from this is caused Listeriosis.  Symptoms are fever, muscle aches, and serious gastrointestinal upset.  What makes listeria so dangerous is that it is an “invasive infection” that spreads beyond the intestinal tract. As the illness progresses, symptoms like stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions may arise. It’s especially dangerous for pregnant women, in whom Listeriosis can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection of the newborn.

Listeriosis must be treated with antibiotics. Frighteningly, although the infection is usually evident within 3-10 days after consuming the tainted food, symptoms may not appear for up to two months.

If you happen to have purchased any of the ice cream or sherbet products listed above, you can return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. If you have questions, you can call Bluebell at  979-836-7977, Monday – Friday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. CST or go to the company’s website.

It seems like every day, more deadly food recalls are arising. What’s the answer?  We believe the answer is as easy as opting out of processed food at the checkout stand.  Don’t worry, you can still have yummy products like ice cream and hummus, though, because we’re all about solutions here.

We’ll be posting a new series on Nutritional Anarchy called “MakeIt@Home” to help you avoid the dangers of purchasing processed food. It’s astonishingly easy to make frozen treats in your own kitchen, with products you trust and ingredients that you can pronounce. Here are the instructions for easy homemade ice cream (without a pricy machine.)

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Contributed by of Nutritional Anarchy.