In October 2018, the FDA suspended the food facility registration for Working Cow Homemade, Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla., and subsequently the firm voluntarily ceased operations.

In the months following the suspension, Working Cow Homemade, Inc. submitted a proposed shift in business to become a warehouse distributor of ice cream products. The company will not resume ice cream manufacturing operations, but instead will store and distribute product sourced from third party manufacturers.

Given the proposed changes and commitments by the firm, along with FDA site inspection and verification, the FDA has lifted the suspension, reinstating the facility registration for Working Cow Homemade, Inc.

Back on October 19, 2018, the FDA used the authority granted under the 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to suspend the food facility’s registration because products manufactured there may have caused serious adverse health consequences.

The FDA’s decision to suspend the registration of Working Cow Homemade, Inc. was prompted by the three cases of and findings from the FDA’s 2017 and 2018 inspections there, which identified insanitary conditions that could lead to contamination with Listeria monocytogenes (L. mono) in finished products. The FDA worked together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Florida Department of Health, and the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, and all ice cream products manufactured by Working Cow Homemade, Inc., from August 29, 2017 to October 11, 2018 were recalled.

For more about the reinstatement as well as the initial suspension, click here.