Put down the spoon. Blue Bell has ordered all of its products taken off Texas stores shelves after finding even more listeria in a half-gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough at its flagship Brenham facility. The full recall comes after Blue Bell issued the first partial recall in the company's history in March, following three deaths in Kansas. Five additional cases of people being sickened by tainted ice cream have been reported in Texas and Kansas.
"We're committed to doing the 100 percent right thing, and the best way to do that is to take all of our products off the market until we are confident that they are all safe. At every step, we have made decisions in the best interest of our customers based on the evidence we had available at the time," Blue Bell CEO Paul Kruse said in a statement. "We have brought in one of the world's most respected food safety microbiologists to inspect our plants and systems to help us get to the bottom of this issue."
Moving forward, Blue Bell will institute something called a "test and hold" system. Basically, everything Blue Bell makes will be tested, and nothing will be released until it is cleared.
If you've got some fudge bars in your freezer, Blue Bell says you can return them to the store you bought them from for a full refund. Unfair Park urges you to move past your childhood nostalgia for an inferior ice cream and take the opportunity switch to Ben and Jerry's.
A statement from Blue Bell CEO and President Paul Kruse from Blue Bell Creameries on Vimeo.
