May 28, 2015

UPDATE!!! Blue Bell Ice Cream 'Refrigerated Morgue Trucks' Join Military Convoy In Colorado Weeks After Listeria Outbreak Shuts Down Ice Cream Production





By Stefan Stanford - All News Pipeline - Live Free Or Die



UPDATE!!! A customer service representative from Blue Bell has asked us to update our story with this official statement.:

The trucks you refer to in the post below, are trucks we are relocating from our closed branches to those that remain open. It just so happened that our trucks were traveling on the same highway as the military convoy, but there is no relation to their activity. Can you please update your story to reflect the correct information?



Thank You,

Jenny Van Dorf

Public Relations Market Specialist

Blue Bell Advertising Associates

1101 South Blue Bell Road

Brenham, TX 77833



979-830-2180

In March 2011, the first case of this outbreak occurs at a Texas hospital that has not been named by state or federal health officials.

In May 2011, the second case occurs at the same Texas hospital.

In January 2014, the first Kansas case of this outbreak is reported in a patient at Via Christi hospital in Wichita.

In March 2014, the second case is reported in Kansas.

In October 2014, three cases are reported; two in Kansas, one in Texas.

In January 2015, a fifth case in Kansas is reported. At this point, eight people in two states have been sickened over a four-year period and three have died but health officials are still unaware that the illnesses have a common cause.

On February 12, 2015 during routine testing at a distribution center, the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control finds Listeria in two Blue Bell products- Great Divide Bars and Chocolate Chip Country Cookie sandwiches The products were manufactured at Blue Bells Brenham facility.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is alerted and conducts its own tests on product samples collected from the Brenham facility. Listeria is again found in Great Divide Bars and Chocolate Chip Country Cookie sandwiches and also found in a single-serving ice cream product, Scoops, made on the same production line.

In early March 2015, health officials identify the Kansas cluster when they notice that two of the cases were both Via Christi patients. Using PulseNet, an inter-agency foodborne illness database, they match DNA fingerprints of rare Listeria isolates from the Kansas patients to those found in the ice cream samples.

On March 9, Via Christi hospital is alerted that Listeria has been found in Blue Bell products. It removes them from circulation and holds them in quarantine. It provides invoices to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment showing that the Blue Bell brand ice cream Scoops used in the patients milkshakes came from Blue Bells facility in Texas.

On March 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces an outbreak of listeriosis linked to Blue Bell ice cream served to patients at a Wichita hospital between January 2014 and January 2015. The outbreak had sickened five people, killing three of them.

Via Christi posts information on its website saying the hospital had no knowledge the ice cream was contaminated until it was notified by health authorities on March 9 and that it has removed all Blue Bell products from circulation.

Blue Bell posted a message on its website saying: One of our machines produced a limited amount of frozen snacks with a potential listeria problem. When this was detected all products produced by this machine were withdrawn. Our Blue Bell team members recovered all involved products in stores and storage. This withdrawal in no way includes our half gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three gallon ice cream or take-home frozen snack novelties.

Blue Bell CEO Paul Kruse tells The Houston Chronicle in a March 13 story that the machine used to make Scoops and other single-serve items had not been in operation for about a month and a half, putting its shutdown days if not weeks before South Carolinas February 12 discovery of Listeria.