Alabama Approves Blue Bell’s Bid to Resume Production
Blue Bell is producing ice cream for future sale at its plant in Sylacauga, Alabama. “Most of the ice cream areas in the stores that carry Blue Bell are just vacant, they haven’t replaced them with anything else”. Those contaminations were subsequently linked to three deaths and several other cases.
The company did not disclose when their Texas and Oklahoma plants will resume ice cream production as well.
Blue Bell reached an agreement with health officials, including health departments in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma that a trial period will be in place before ice cream is sold to consumers.
Last month, the ice cream maker began to run tests at its plant in Alabama.
“We are still finalizing our distribution plan and do not have a date when our products will return to market”.
Blue Bell, which is based in Brenham, Texas, underwent an extensive cleaning and decontamination process at its plants following the recall.
All testing done by both parties led to negative results, meaning the products were not contaminated, although the testing is still ongoing for any signs of anything positive, McVay said.
Listeria, the bacteria that halted Blue Bell’s production, has been a big problem for the industry lately.
A Blue Bell representative tells KVUE 180 workers that had been furloughed are now back at work in their Alabama plant.