Blue Bell reopens plant in Brenham

Employee Robert Hilty (left) is served ice cream by Matthew Danesi in the parlor at Blue Bell Creameries on Wednesday. The company restarted its largest plant on Wednesday.. There is no firm date for when ice cream from the Brenham facility will be available for sale. Blue Bell resumed production at its Alabama and Oklahoma facilities in the past few months. In response, Blue Bell changed out equipment, instituted new cleaning procedures, and started testing every lot of ice cream for listeria before releasing it for sale.

That’s good news for employees, 70 of whom are back to work at the plant after a long furlough. “I just hope that everybody can come back and get their jobs back”.

Blue Bell voluntarily recalled all products in April after 10 reported cases of listeria were linked to Blue Bell frozen treats. Four flavors of the company’s ice cream returned to store shelves on August 31.

A Food and Drug Administration investigation subsequently revealed Blue Bell facilities had been testing positive for listeria since 2013, information that Blue Bell wasn’t required to report since the listeria was found in places around the factory but wasn’t found in the ice cream- because the company never actually tested the ice cream.

Roughly 1,400 employees were laid off nationwide after the outbreak.

Blue Bell began production at its Sylacauga, Ala. facility in July and the Broken Arrow, Okla. facility in September.

Of course, in Blue Bell’s case that won’t matter since the company is now required to test and monitor its ice cream and the facilities where that ice cream is produced.

Accompanying Wednesday’s announcement, the company released a video featuring longtime employees thanking customers for their patience and expressing joy at returning to work.