First Blue Bell Plant to Resume Production After Massive Recall
Blue Bell Creameries has been given the all clear to produce and sell ice cream made at its Sylacauga, AL plant according Ron Dawsey, director at the Alabama Department of Public Health.
Production resumed at the Alabama plant on July 20 and a new cleaning and sanitizing program was strictly enforced, along with intense food safety training for the plant employees. According to Dawsey, the Sylacauga plant has been inspected and is meeting the state’s “standards for dessert product production,”
Going forward, Blue Bell must notify Alabama’s health department of future plant test results.
Blue Bell recalled all their products in March after a number of Listeria illnesses and three deaths were reportedly linked to two of the company’s plants in Brenham, TX and Broken Arrow, OK. None of the reported illnesses were linked to products manufactured at the Sylacauga plant. As a result of the company-wide recall, 4,000 employees were laid off--40 percent of Blue Bell’s entire workforce.
The Oklahoma and Texas plants linked to the massive recall remain closed and it has not yet been determined when production at those facilities will resume. There is no firm date for when the company’s products will return to store shelves.
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