Blue Bell Recall: Potentially Deadly Listeria Found in Cookie Dough

Tampa Bay area residents with a passion for Blue Bell Ice Cream’s chocolate chip cookie dough blends might want to check their freezers. The Texas-based ice cream manufacturer has announced a voluntary recall of select products due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in people who are young, frail, elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Generally healthy people suffer short-term symptoms that may include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea and abdominal pain, among others. Listeria contamination may also cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Blue Bell said the potential contamination links back to a third-party cookie dough supplier, Aspen Hills. The Iowa-based company issued a recall of its cookie dough Tuesday after Blue Bell brought the potential contamination to its attention.

The recall covers the following products:

• Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough half gallons – Code dates: 082618226
• Blue Bell Cookie Two Step half gallons – Code dates: 080418222, 081818224
• Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough pints – Code dates: 081518242, 082418242

The products, Blue Bell said in a media release, can be identified by the code date on the bottom of cartons. Products shipped with potentially contaminated chocolate chip cookie dough pieces were distributed to Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

“No illnesses have been reported to date,” the company’s release said. “Blue Bell identified a potential problem through intensified internal testing and notified Aspen Hills. Aspen Hills then issued a voluntary recall of the products supplied to Blue Bell. Although our products in the marketplace have passed our test and hold program, which requires that finished product samples test negative for Listeria monocytogenes, Blue Bell is initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution.”

Consumers who bought the potentially contaminated products are asked to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. For consumers with questions, the number to call is 979-836-7977.

Blue Bell has suffered its own concerns related to Listeria. The company took its products off the market last year to retool its production plants after detecting the potentially fatal organism in its ice cream. The company’s products returned to Florida stores in January.

For more information about the recall, visit Blue Bell online.

Photo courtesy of Blue Bell