Listeria has been found in products made at two Blue Bell locations, Brenham Texas and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. But what about the company's third plant in Sylacauga, Alabama? As of March 31, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) had not received word that U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials planned to visit the Sylacauga plant to conduct testing, a spokesman told Food Poisoning Bulletin via email. The Alabama Department of Public Health inspects the plant, which makes about 15 million gallons of ice cream each year, quarterly. The last inspection was February 19, 2015. However, environmental swabs are not taken during those inspections, nor are products tested for specific pathogens. Instead, samples are tested for coliform and the standard plate … [Read more...]
Blue Bell Suspends Operations at Broken Arrow, OK Plant
After a Listeria monocytogenes outbreak in Kansas that sickened five people, Blue Bell is suspending operations at its Broken Arrow, Oklahoma plant. Ice cream produced at that plant was recalled for possible Listeria contamination late last month. Another Blue Bell Facility in Brenham, Texas, produced ice cream that was linked to the Kansas outbreak. Three of the patients sickened in the outbreak, which took place at the Via Christi hospital in Wichita, Kansas, died after they got sick. Of the four people interviewed by public health officials, all drank milkshakes made with a Blue Bell ice cream product called "Scoops". Listeria strains isolated from this product were "highly related" to sequences of Listeria taken from the patients, according to government reports. The statement on … [Read more...]
CDC Updates Blue Bell Creameries Ice Cream Listeria Outbreak
The CDC has updated their investigation of the Listeria monocytogenes outbreak in Kansas linked to Blue Bell Creameries ice cream products. The notice states, "based on the information CDC has at this time, we recommend that consumers do not eat any Blue Bell Brand products made at the Oklahoma production facility [in Broken Arrow] and that retailers and institutions do not sell or serve them." Five people have been sickened in this outbreak, and three have died. All five people were hospitalized for unrelated illnesses, and were served the ice cream while at the Via Christi hospital in Wichita, Kansas. The Kansas outbreak is linked to products made at the Blue Bell plant in Brenham, Texas. Attorney Fred Pritzker, who has won millions for people sickened in such outbreaks, said, … [Read more...]
Hospital Listeriosis Outbreaks Deadly and Difficult to Detect
Hospital listeriosis outbreaks, such as the one in Kansas linked to Blue Bell ice cream, can be difficult to detect and especially dangerous because 90 percent of Listeria-related illnesses fall on expecting mothers, infants, seniors and others who are immuno-suppressed. In 2010, a determined group of epidemiologists at the Texas State Department of Health Services launched an investigation into a puzzling outbreak that killed five hospital patients over a period of seven months at various hospitals in the central portion of the state. The team wrote about their work in the Oxford Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases, raising questions about why hospitals don't do more to protect vulnerable patients from food poisoning. The same agency recently helped to confirm that Blue Bell ice … [Read more...]
Lab Work Solidified Kansas Listeria Link to Blue Bell Ice Cream
The food poisoning laboratory that solidified the link between Blue Bell ice cream and a Listeria outbreak among Kansas hospital patients in Wichita is a deeply experienced unit with notable success in protecting public health, according to archives at the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The tragic Kansas Listeria outbreak killed three of five patients at Via Christi St. Francis Hospital who drank milkshakes made from a now-recalled Blue Bell ice cream product, "Scoops." Public alerts may have saved others from a similar fate, but officials are concerned that some recalled Blue Bell ice cream items may still be in the home freezers of people unaware of the outbreak. Bulk ice cream sold in half-gallons, pints, quarts and 3 gallons is not part of the Blue Bell … [Read more...]
Oklahoma’s Key Role in Blue Bell Listeria Investigation
Listeria problems with Blue Bell ice cream were thought to be associated with a single machine at the company's manufacturing facility in Brenham, Texas. Tests on products made there contained the same unusual strains of the bacteria that killed three people and sickened two others at Via Christi hospital in Wichita, all of whom had eaten Blue Bell ice cream during their hospitalizations for unrelated illnesses. But earlier this week, tests on a different product made at different location, Blue Bell's plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, were also positive for Listeria. The product, a 3-ounce ice cream cup, was made specifically for Blue Bell's institutional clients such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools and shipped to 23 states. No illnesses have been linked to Blue Bell products … [Read more...]
Listeria Recall: Blue Bell Ice Cream at Schools, Hospitals, Nursing Homes
Blue Bell ice cream cups recalled March 23 for Listeria were distributed to hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other institutional food service operations, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The recalled 3-ounce cups of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream were manufactured at Blue Bell's facility in Broken Arrow, Okla. and distributed to 23 states. Distribution to schools, hospitals and nursing homes is troubling as children, pregnant women, the elderly and the sick are at highest risk for Listeria infections. This recall is in addition the 10 single serving products Blue Bell withdrew from the market earlier this month after one of them, Scoops, was linked to a Listeria outbreak at Via Christi hospital in Wichita that … [Read more...]
Listeria Found in Ice Cream Made in Second Blue Bell Facility
After a deadly Listeria outbreak at Via Christi hospital in Wichita was linked to Blue Bell ice cream made in Texas, new tests have found the pathogen in ice cream made at the company's plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The potentially contaminated products distributed to hospitals and other other institutions in 23 states include three flavors of 3 ounce ice cream cups: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. The recalled chocolate cups have the SKU number 453, Strawberry SKU 452 and Vanilla SKU451. They were distributed in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. These … [Read more...]
Blue Bell Recalls More Ice Cream for Possible Listeria
Blue Bell Ice Cream is recalling 3 ounce institutional/food service ice cream cups because they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. That brand's ice cream is linked to a deadly Listeria outbreak in Wichita, Kansas. Five people were sickened and three died after being served Blue Bell ice cream at the Via Christi hospital in Wichita. On March 22, 2015, the Kansas Department of Health & Environment reported one positive test for Listeria monocytogenes on a chocolate ice cream cup taken from a hospital in Wichita, Kansas. This cup was produced in the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma plant on April 15, 2014. This is a different facility from the one in Brenham, Texas, that produced the ice cream linked to the Kansas outbreak. These products were sold in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, … [Read more...]
Scientists Scrutinize DNA In Blue Bell Ice Cream Listeria Outbreak
Listeria surveillance in the deadly Blue Bell ice cream food poisoning outbreak has advanced to include Whole Genome Sequencing, a tool for examining the DNA code of human pathogens that is second to none in accuracy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Whole Genome Sequencing, or WGS, of the Listeria monocytogenes isolates obtained from Blue Bell ice cream by Texas health officials was set in progress earlier this month. Kansas Blue Bell lawsuits on behalf of victims seeking compensation for their illnesses undoubtedly will incorporate the results, as will state and federal epidemiologists who are trying to get an accurate picture of how many people outside Kansas were infected. As explained in a CDC You Tube video, WGS provides the most detailed look … [Read more...]
