Blue Bell signs agreements with health officials in TX, OK




Blue Bell Creameries has signed agreements with health officials in Texas and Oklahoma requiring the ice cream company to disclose positive test results for listeria in its products or ingredients,


USA Today

reported.

The company is working on a similar agreement with health officials in Alabama, the article said.


The company agreed to follow the new rules in order to be permitted by the states to resume producing ice cream in plants there, the article said.


In Texas, the state will conduct tests on trial runs on each production line and assess the company's progress in cleaning listeria bacteria from its equipment at least two weeks before Blue Bell resumes making ice dream, the


USA Today


report said.


Blue Bell voluntarily took its ice cream off the market and issued a product recall in April after samples tested positive for listeria, the report noted.

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“Food and Drug Administration investigation findings … showed the company had found 17 positive samples of listeria on surfaces and floors in its Oklahoma plant dating back to 2013. The FDA said it was never told of these repeated findings of listeria,” the


USA Today


article said.



A


Food Safety News




report

noted that Blue Bell Creameries is a family company founded in 1907. It has about 3,800 employees in four production facilities in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama.


Paul Kruse, grandson of founder E.F. Kruse, is the CEO. Forty percent of the company's stock is held by employees, the


Food Safety News


article said. (Sources:


USA Today


, May 14, 2015;


Food Safety News


, May 5, 2015.)

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