Last week, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) revealed that Listeria had been found in 10 environmental swabs and samples from 16 different flavors of ice cream at Big Olaf Creamery's production plant in Sarasota, FL. The samples were collected after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on July 2 that epidemiological evidence identified the ice cream as the source of a Listeria outbreak that has sickened 23 people over an 18-month period. One of the patients died and another suffered a miscarriage. Presented with that information, Big Olaf declined to issue a recall. Then a spokesperson for the company issued a statement that deemed the epidemiological information "speculative" and wondered why the company was being unfairly … [Read more...]
Purple Cow Ice Cream Recalled for Undeclared Nuts
House of Flavors Inc. is recalling Purple Cow Limited Edition Cookie Butter Ice Cream sold at Meijer stores, in 8 oz cups because it contains undeclared nuts. The recalled ice cream actually contains Purple Cow Butter Pecan Ice Cream and has a Purple Cow Butter Pecan lid. Consumers who may have an allergy or sensitivity to nuts should not eat this ice cream as they run the risk of potentially life-threatening allergic reaction if they do.For consumers who are not allergic to nuts, there is no safety issue with this product. The recalled product has the UPC 13733 61945 and was sold at at Meijer stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. At the time of the recall, the company had received one complaint but no reports of illnesses. House of Flavors and … [Read more...]
Blue Bell Workers Blow the Whistle on Management
A report agreeing with the FDA report on Blue Bell Ice cream factory conditions aired on CBS News last night, revealing that former Blue Bell Ice Cream workers said management allegedly ignored complaints about unsanitary conditions in the factory in Texas. Blue Bell ice cream was linked to a multistate, deadly Listeria monocytogenes outbreak earlier this year. In that outbreak, at least ten people in four states were sickened and three people died. Blue Bell had to recall millions of gallons of ice cream and all of its plants were shut down for months. One of the former workers told CBS news that "A lot of times when I walked in there was just ice cream all over the floor. Sometimes the machines would just go haywire, the product would just continually run through the conveyor belt … [Read more...]