According to the Dallas News, Blue Bell has recalled all of the ice cream that they have ever produced throughout their 108-year existence.

The initial recall was announced on March 13 after products manufactured in a Brenham TX plant were linked to a cluster of listeriosis including 3 deaths and 2 illnesses. With additional information came additional recall expansions. And now it’s all the ice cream products.

A message from CEO and President, Paul Kruse on the Blue Bell website states:

Through further internal testing, we learned today that Listeria monocytogenes was found in an additional half gallon of ice cream in our Brenham facility. While we initially believed this situation was isolated to one machine in one room, we now know that was wrong. We need to know more to be completely confident that our products are safe for our customers.

As Blue Bell moves forward, we are implementing a procedure called “test and hold” for all products made at all of our manufacturing facilities. This means that all products released will be tested first and held for release to the market only after the tests show they are safe.

In addition to the “test and hold” system, Blue Bell is implementing additional safety procedures and testing including:

–          Expanding our already robust system of daily cleaning and sanitizing of equipment

–          Expanding our system of swabbing and testing our plant environment by 800 percent to include more surfaces (what was it before -ben?)

–          Sending samples daily to a leading microbiology laboratory for testing

Too bad it takes such a tragic event to lead to the action.