Blue Bell ice cream linked to deadly outbreak

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Bacteria-contaminated ice cream made by Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries has been linked to the deaths of three hospital patients in Kansas, prompting the company's first product recall in its 108-year history.

Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that five people in Kansas developed listeriosis, a life-threatening bacterial infection, between January 2014 and January this year after eating products from one production line at the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham. Three of the five people infected died.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating and monitoring the outbreak.

Blue Bell President and CEO Paul Kruse said the company removed 10 products from the market by picking them up from hospitals and food service outlets where it is sold. This marks the first recall for the iconic Texas company, which sells its products in 23 states and is ranked as the third highest-selling brand of ice cream in the country, according to the Blue Bell website.

"Anytime is one too much," Kruse said. He stressed that the company is doing everything it can to ensure nothing like this happens again. "This is the only thing we do: We make and sell ice cream. It's who we are and we've got to do it right."

Kruse added that none of the products removed from the market are sold in retail stores, but rather in hospitals and food service outlets such as restaurants. He said the creameries' regular Moo Bars, half-gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three-gallon ice cream and take-home frozen snack novelties were not affected by the recall.

The product contamination was first detected on Feb. 12 during routine sampling by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control at a distribution center in that state. Health officials there found strains of listeria in single-serving Chocolate Chip Country Cookie Sandwich and the Great Divide Bar ice cream products.

Following their findings, the Texas Department of State Health Services, collected product samples from the Blue Bell Creameries' Brenham facility and detected listeria in a third single-serving ice cream product called "Scoops."

All three products came off the same production line. Kruse said that the machine used to make these particular products has not been in operation for about a month and a half, even prior to officials learning about the contaminated products.

"We weren't producing on it and we haven't since," he said.

The company then removed all potentially affected products from the market. Kruse said he didn't have an estimate on how much product the company had to remove, but that it was low volume.

"There shouldn't be any out there anymore," Kruse said, noting that all the products were removed about three weeks ago "as a precaution."

All those infected in Kansas were hospitalized at the same place for unrelated problems before developing the food-borne illness, which strongly suggests their infections were acquired while in the hospital.

Records for four of the patients show they all consumed milkshakes made with a single-serve Blue Bell ice cream product called "Scoops" about a month before becoming infected, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC, cantaloupes contaminated with listeria in 2011 caused the deadliest food-borne disease outbreak in the United States in nearly 90 years, killing 29 people. The infection is considered particularly dangerous for groups such as the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.

Symptoms, which can appear from a few days up to a few weeks after consumption of the contaminated food, include fever, muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms, or fever. Health officials say anyone who experiences such symptoms should seek medical care and tell their health care provider about any history of eating the ice cream.

Blue Bell opened as the Brenham Creamery Co. in 1907. It expanded to Houston in 1960, and the region is one of Blue Bell's biggest markets.

Today, Blue Bell claims about 60 percent market share for packaged ice cream in the Houston market.

Below is list of Blue Bell Creameries products removed from the market:

Chocolate Chip Country Cookie

Great Divide Bar

Sour Pop Green Apple Bar

Cotton Candy Bar

Scoops

Vanilla Stick Slices

Almond Bars

6 Pk Cotton Candy Bars

6 Pk Sour Pop Green Apple Bars

12 Pk No Sugar Added Mooo Bars