Blue Bell Ice Cream won't return soon
It is taking longer than first expected for Blue Bell Ice Cream to make its way back into groceries, and the company's president said it is still months away "at a minimum."
The Blue Bell production plants in Brenham, Texas, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Sylacauga, Alabama, are closed and no ice cream is being produced at this time
The company, which has collected about 8 million gallons of ice cream and ice cream products during a recall involving the bacteria listeria, said the process of getting its facilities operating again will take longer than initially planned.
"The extensive and detailed process of updating, cleaning and sanitizing our four production facilities, as well as training employees and implementing new programs and procedures, will take longer than we initially anticipated. Each facility will have its own timetable and production may resume in some locations before others," the company said in a Thursday release.
It's CEO and president said there is not yet a firm timetable to get it back on grocery store shelves.
"Unfortunately, we do not yet have a firm timeline for when Blue Bell ice cream will be back in stores, but we believe at this time that it will be several months at a minimum," said Blue Bell CEO and President Paul Kruse.
"We are evaluating all of our operations in light of this extended timeline, we are working closely with the appropriate federal and state regulatory agencies and our microbiology experts, and we are mapping out the many details of returning to production and distribution as soon as we can do so with confidence."
On April 20, the company announced the recall of all ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snack products in response to samples of half-gallon chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream units produced on March 17 and March 27 containing listeria, a bacteria that can cause severe illness and possible death, especially in children and the elderly.
The company said it is continuing the process of thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing each facility, including disassembling equipment, conducting extensive maintenance and repairs, and conducting employee training in microbiology and sanitization. It is also reviewing all operating procedures and every step of the production process to eliminate possible contamination pathways.
While the company realizes consumers want the ice cream back on shelves, they said safety is the priority.
"Several swab tests did show the presence of listeria on non-food surfaces in Blue Bell's Broken Arrow plant in 2013," the company said in an emailed update. "As is standard procedure for any such positive results, the company would immediately clean the surfaces and swab until the tests were negative. We thought our cleaning process took care of any problems, but in hindsight, it was not adequate, which is why we are currently conducting such a comprehensive re-evaluation of all our operations."
The Sylacauga facility has been closed for cleaning and sanitizing since April 24, 2015.