Blue Bell to begin trial runs at Alabama plant

The company began recalling all products earlier this year after reports some products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Blue Bell has only been able to resume manufacturing activities after reaching an agreement with the Alabama State Health Department (and entering into similar ones with the appropriate bureaus in Texas and Oklahoma).

Screen shot from Blue Bell’s Twitter account.

Blue Bell notified Alabama health officials and the US Food and Drug Administration of its plans for its plant in Sylacauga, Ala. Three people died and seven others fell ill, health officials have said. The agreement details actions the company will take to ensure its products are safe, such as facility cleaning and sanitizing, revised testing protocols and production policies, procedures to prevent future contamination and new training initiatives.

Based on the results of the test runs, a decision will be made about resuming production and getting the ice cream back in stores, but there’s no timeline on when that might happen.

A message on the company’s website says when it completes the trial period, Blue Bell will start building up inventory to send back to the marketplace.

There is no firm date for the test production to begin, and no firm date for when ice cream sales will resume.

Blue Bell promptly shut down production in its four manufacturing plants in order to sterilize the facilities and implement improvements.

In March the company issued the first recall in its 108-year history after the five confirmed cases of Listeriosis in Kansas were linked to products from a single production line.