Blue Bell Creameries suspends operations at Oklahoma plant, site of contaminated ice cream
In March, the ice cream maker recalled three flavors of its 3-ounce ice cream cups made for the institutional/food service markets and seven novelty products.
On Friday, Blue Bell Creameries, Brenham, Texas, said it is voluntarily suspending operations at its ice cream manufacturing plant in Broken Arrow, Okla. In statement, Blue Bell said it will “thoroughly inspect the facility for any possible problems that may have led to the contamination of some of our ice cream products in the past few weeks.” Read the complete press release here.
On March 13, Blue Bell announced a product recall, its first in 108 years of operation. It stated, “one of our machines produced a limited amount of frozen snacks with a potential listeria problem.” Then on March 23, a second statement noted that the FDA found Listeria bacteria in samples of Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars and individually packaged SCOOPS. Seven other products made on the same production line were also recalled: individually packaged Sour Pop Green Apple Bar, Cotton Candy Bar, Almond Bar and Vanilla Stick Slices and 6-pack Cotton Candy Bars, 6-pack Sour Pop Green Apple Bars and 12-pack NSA Mooo Bars. Regular Mooo Bars are not included.