Blue Bell Ice Cream Issues Immediate Recall on All Products

On Monday (April 20), Blue Bell Ice Cream issued a voluntary recall of all its products due to a possible health risk found in its half gallon containers of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. The product in question was produced on March 17 and March 27 in the company's plants in Brenham, Texas, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and a third facility in Alabama. The recall includes all of their products including ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snacks due to the potential contamination of Listeria monocytogenes. This organism can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in individuals with weakened immune systems like young children and frail adults.

In a statement from Blue Bell regarding their products:

They have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. At this point, we cannot say with certainty how Listeria was introduced to our facilities. We continue to work with our team of experts to eliminate this problem.

The reason for the all out recall is due to positive evidence of Listeria found in products at different places and different plants. Supermarkets in Colorado, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming as well as international stores have all been instructed to stop selling the products immediately.

On Monday night, several stores have already confirmed that all Blue Bell products have been removed from the shelves.