Blue Bell and fairytales about crisis communication

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Despite the angst surrounding Blue Bell Creameries’ well-publicized listeria outbreak, one thing is clear: Blue Bell has practiced stellar crisis communications.

No.

The company has been honest, transparent and accountable, qualities which have placed it in the best possible position to rebound from this crisis.

No.

Overwhelmingly, public response on Twitter has been positive. As one commenter put it: “I don’t think media quite understand the emotional attachment Texans feel for #BlueBell.”

I’m not sure the families of the three dead in Kansas would agree.

David Sommer, the Charles E. Cheever chair of risk management at St. Mary’s University said Blue Bell’s initial response has not been ideal, adding, “The multiple and expanding recalls kept the company in the news for six weeks. It’s important to get the facts out as soon as possible. A company must be seen as proactive, not reactive.”

Blue Bell has set up a toll-free telephone number for consumers to call with questions. It is 866-608-3940, according to its website. The Blue Bell website also has a statement from CEO and President Paul Kruse, dated April 20, that explains the company’s safety and testing steps that are now underway.

“The company will have to start a significant advertising campaign,” Sommer said. “It must have humility about its mistakes, apologize to its customers and add assurances that it won’t happen again.

“People want to know the company feels regret and is making assurances it won’t happen again.”

And to do that, with all the increased Listeria testing, make the results publicly available.

‘Assume food is not safe’ Lesson from Blue Bell Listeria recall

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Douglas Powell

I always say, never assume food is safe.

And that’s why other parents hate me.

Mansour Samadpour, president and CEO of IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group, said the same thing to The Guardian when talking about the Blue Bell Listeria outbreak.

“Many of these outbreaks are detected by chance events. … By the time people are sick, it’s too late.” Companies should be diligent in their sampling and testing. “If you are producing food, let’s not assume that the food is safe until proven otherwise. Let’s just assume that the food is not safe until proven otherwise.”

That is what Blue Bell said it will do going forward. Prior to the news of the outbreak, Blue Bell regularly tested its product. Now, it will test every single batch before it ships.

Go further: Make the results public and throw them on a website. And market food safety at retail.

Listeria in ice cream: Tell consumers testing plans, make results public

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Chapman and I made this other road trip, in 2002, where we stayed at a B&B in Gippsland, Australia, saw a bad Pink Floyd cover band in Melbourne, went to New Zealand for work (and to see his girlfriend) and then back to Sydney for ANZAC day.

We had no idea what ANZAC day was back then.

I have a better idea now.

The campaign at Gallipoli in World War 1, was the first major battle undertaken in the war by Australia and New Zealand, and is often considered to mark the birth of national consciousness in both of these countries.

On Saturday, 6-year-old Sorenne walked with classmates to the local memorial, and we talked about war, and what we were walking for.

But praying or keeping fingers crossed is not going to prevent war, any more that it’s going to prevent Listeria in ice cream.

And so Chapman and I were reunited – in print – half-a-world apart.

With another recall of ice cream announced Friday over fears of listeria contamination – the third in four months – consumers are wondering whether it’s safe to indulge in their favorite summer treat.

There have been three major ice cream recalls for listeria contamination in recent months, starting with Snoqualmie Ice Cream, a Washington state company that issued a voluntary recall in December for all its products produced from Jan. 1, 2014, until Dec. 21, 2014. At least two illnesses have been linked to Snoqualmie’s recalled products.

On Monday, Blue Bell Creameries recalled all of its products currently on the market, which include ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snacks. At least 10 people have been sickened by Blue Bell products contaminated with listeria in Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Three people died in Kansas.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams on Friday announced a voluntary recall of all ice creams, frozen yogurts, sorbets and ice cream sandwiches. Jeni’s isn’t aware of any reports of illness to date.

“We see listeria associated with lots of other foods out there, and now we’ve added ice cream to the list,” said Doug Powell, a former professor of food safety in Canada and the U.S. who publishes barfblog, a food safety blog.

Listeria can be killed with heat, but not cold.

“Listeria grows slowly at refrigeration temperatures and it persists in frozen foods,” said Benjamin Chapman, a food safety specialist at North Carolina State University.

Food safety experts Powell and Chapman said it’s safe to eat ice cream.

Kate Connors, a spokeswoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said Friday that she didn’t know of any plans to add ice cream to the list of foods pregnant women should avoid eating.

Consumers should toss any products affected by the recalls, but listeria is so rare that it simply doesn’t make sense to get rid of all the frozen treats in your fridge, said Powell.

“I don’t think there’s a big cause for worry,” he said, “but I do think it’s incumbent on the companies to do the proper testing and to make it public if they want to not only maintain but ensure consumer trust.”

What I meant by that was, hey, ice cream folks, tell us lowly consumers what testing you do, make those results public, and market food safety at retail.

Seen and heard: Listeria in Blue Bell ice cream

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Ben Chapman

As the coverage of the 10 case/3 death listeriosis outbreak focuses on the expansion of the recall many are looking at the fallout and environmental and product testing in ice cream facilities

Rachel Abrams and Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times report on how customers might react:

Analysts voiced concerns that Blue Bell had acted too late, as the recalls eroded customer confidence. Restoring trust as the summer sales season approaches will be difficult, they say.

“When there’s a recall and somebody does something quickly and when they handle it properly, we forgive it,” said Phil Lempert, food industry analyst for SupermarketGuru.com. “When it’s the entire product line or the entire company,” he said, “people are very concerned.”

“Food and safety recalls are something that retailers take very seriously,” said Dya Campos, a spokeswoman for HEB Grocery. She said the grocer was referring all queries from shoppers to Blue Bell and that it would independently assess whether to carry the brand again once its products were deemed safe.

Food safety lawyer Bill Marler was also quoted about the perception of expanding recalls:

“Limiting the recall might seem like a good idea. But then if you keep expanding your recall, it’s a death by a thousand cuts. You look like you’re dragging your feet.”

Karin Robinson – Jacobs and Sherry Jacobson of the Dallas Morning News dive right into Blue Bell’s response.

The company acknowledged that when it issued its first recall notice, portraying the problem as limited, isolated and small, it did so before thoroughly testing for Listeria throughout its operation.

One food safety expert did not fault the company for its initial brevity, but said subsequent events show that the company expressed confidence too soon.

“Maybe the cleaning and sanitation program that Blue Bell was using wasn’t adequate,” said Benjamin Chapman, a food safety expert with North Carolina State University. “As more samples came back … it highlights that this problem was larger than they originally thought.”

Blue Bell spokeswoman Jenny Van Dorf said that before the initial March 13 recall “we were regularly testing our products at that time for bacteria. There was nothing that indicated that there was any issue,” she said.

She added that the production line identified in the initial recall was in an isolated area of the main Brenham plant, which added to the company’s sense that the problem also was isolated. So far, two lines in Brenham and two in Broken Arrow, Okla., have turned up traces of Listeria.

“We’ve always followed industry standards with testing our product,” she said. “But now going forward, we will specifically test for Listeria.”

Van Dorf said Blue Bell has hired an outside lab and will place any newly produced product in cold storage while waiting for results from tests specifically designed to detect Listeria. The wait could be several days.

The new procedure, called “test and hold” marks a more costly departure from the company’s past testing protocols and lengthens the time before product returns to market.

Chapman noted that there is no federal mandate for how food manufacturers are to test. He said “industry standards” are more like common practices.

But he cautioned against the urge to mandate specific testing methods because each plant is so different.

“I think you get into a very dangerous situation when you start to say there should be a minimum amount of environmental [testing] that goes on because each business has their own particulars. What we need are really good operators who understand where pathogens come from and they know what to do to … reduce the risk.”

Raleigh NBC affiliate WNCN asked me about the outbreak, you can see the interview below.
WNCN: News, Weather, Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville

A Journey Through the Past: additional illnesses linked to Blue Bell

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Ben Chapman

Following Blue Bell’s recall of all of their products last night, CDC updated their Blue Bell Creameries investigation website to include two additional illnesses in Arizona and Oklahoma (in 2010 and 2012). MPW-12530

As of April 21, 2015, a total of ten patients infected with several strains of Listeria monocytogenes were reported from four states: Arizona (1), Kansas (5), Oklahoma (1), and Texas (3). Illness onset dates ranged from January 2010 through January 2015. The patients with illness onsets ranging from 2010-2014 were identified through a retrospective review of the PulseNet database for DNA fingerprints that were similar to isolates collected from Blue Bell ice cream samples. Since the last update on April 8, 2015, two additional patients, one each from Arizona and Oklahoma, were confirmed to be a part of the outbreak by whole genome sequencing. All ten (100%) patients were hospitalized. Three deaths were reported from Kansas.

What we haven’t heard from Blue Bell is whether they had Listeria issues in their plants in the past, and if so, what they did to address them.

Blue Bell recalls all of their ice cream

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Ben Chapman

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

– Providing additional employee training

We are heartbroken about this situation and apologize to all of our loyal Blue Bell fans and customers. Our entire history has been about making the very best and highest quality ice cream, and we intend to fix this problem. We want enjoying our ice cream to be a source of joy and pleasure, never a cause for concern, so we are committed to getting this right.

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

It is embarrassing and deadly: Blue Bell working to get past Listeria contamination scare

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Blue Bell Creameries will survive the crisis caused by a recent recall of products prompted by a finding of bacterial contamination in some of its products, but it will take a lot of work and a lot of money, experts said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported earlier this month that three people in Texas had the same strain of listeria bacteria linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products previously found in five others at a Wichita, Kansas, hospital. Three of the five in Kansas died. That prompted the first recall in the family-owned creamery’s 108-year history, and some major retail and customer clients pulled all Blue Bell products from their offerings until they could be assured those products were safe.

Consultant Gene Grabowski, who has been a “crisis guru” to food manufacturers in about 150 recalls, has been advising the Brenham, Texas-based creamery, the Austin American-Statesman (http://atxne.ws/1EXjk6R ) reported. Blue Bell, he said, has worked around the clock since the listeria concerns arose to identify and correct any contamination sources.

“This company cares more about the health and well-being of consumers than any company I’ve ever worked for,” he told the newspaper. “This is a company that’ always trying to do the right thing. This has been embarrassing for the family.”

Inspections and audits are never enough: Blue Bell Listeria-in-ice-cream version

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Days after a foodborne illness was linked to Blue Bell ice cream products, a state inspection of an Oklahoma plant later tied to the infection praised the facility for having no violations and doing a “great job,” according to a copy of the inspection report.

Inspectors had no reason to check for listeria during the routine March 18 review as no problems were detected and the facility didn’t have a history of issues linked to the illness, said Stan Stromberg, director of the food safety division for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry..

“With an organism like listeria, you cannot do a visual inspection,” Stromberg said on Thursday.

Tainted Blue Bell ice cream products have sickened eight people — five in Kansas and three in Texas. Three of the five in Kansas have died and health officials there say listeria, also known as listeriosis, might have been a contributing factor in the deaths.

In the one-page report about the Oklahoma plant, provided to The Associated Press in response to an open records request, an inspector wrote “No Violations Observed!” and “Keep it up!”

Once again, most food safety is faith-based. At the market or the megalomart, mere mortals have no idea whether that lettuce or tomato or ice cream was raised in a microbiologically-aware environment. With each outbreak, more consumers are losing their religion.

Me, along with Ben Chapman, now an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, and Katija Morley (nee Blaine), who’s still busy with fruit and veg in Canada, have been doing the on-farm stuff for over 15 years and dealing with retailers and audits. But it was the January 2009 outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium linked to the Peanut Corporation of America that killed 9 people and sickened at least 714, when we decided we should organize our thoughts.

Because there wasn’t much in the peer-reviewed literature.

And we’re sorta big on the science stuff.

We also try to be credible, so I invited a few others to share their expertise.

Chuck Dodd serves in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps and I had the fortunate opportunity to interact with Chuck while he was doing a PhD at Kansas State. He was most recently based in Germany and now in North Carolina. He’s seen a lot.

Roy Costa is a decent guitar player who is well-respected in food safety circles for his auditing prowess and incisive commentary.

Sol has worked with me for a shorter time, but her perspective as a graduate student in psychology at K-State has always been welcomed.

Together, we came out with a paper we could all (mostly) agree with and got it published. The main points are:

food safety audits and inspections are a key component of the nation’s food safety system and their use will expand in the future, for both domestic and imported foodstuffs., but recent failures can be emotionally, physically and financially devastating to the victims and the businesses involved;
many outbreaks involve firms that have had their food production systems verified and received acceptable ratings from food safety auditors or government inspectors;
while inspectors and auditors play an active role in overseeing compliance, the burden for food safety lies primarily with food producers;
there are lots of limitations with audits and inspections, just like with restaurants inspections, but with an estimated 48 million sick each year in the U.S., the question should be, how best to improve food safety?
audit reports are only useful if the purchaser or food producer reviews the results, understands the risks addressed by the standards and makes risk-reduction decisions based on the results;
there appears to be a disconnect between what auditors provide (a snapshot) and what buyers believe they are doing (a full verification or certification of product and process);
third-party audits are only one performance indicator and need to be supplemented with microbial testing, second-party audits of suppliers and the in-house capacity to meaningfully assess the results of audits and inspections;
companies who blame the auditor or inspector for outbreaks of foodborne illness should also blame themselves;
assessing food-handling practices of staff through internal observations, externally-led evaluations, and audit and inspection results can provide indicators of a food safety culture; and,
the use of audits to help create, improve, and maintain a genuine food safety culture holds the most promise in preventing foodborne illness and safeguarding public health.

Audits and inspections are never enough: A critique to enhance food safety

30.aug.12

Food Control

D.A. Powell, S. Erdozain, C. Dodd, R. Costa, K. Morley, B.J. Chapman

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512004409?v=s5

Abstract

Internal and external food safety audits are conducted to assess the safety and quality of food including on-farm production, manufacturing practices, sanitation, and hygiene. Some auditors are direct stakeholders that are employed by food establishments to conduct internal audits, while other auditors may represent the interests of a second-party purchaser or a third-party auditing agency. Some buyers conduct their own audits or additional testing, while some buyers trust the results of third-party audits or inspections. Third-party auditors, however, use various food safety audit standards and most do not have a vested interest in the products being sold. Audits are conducted under a proprietary standard, while food safety inspections are generally conducted within a legal framework. There have been many foodborne illness outbreaks linked to food processors that have passed third-party audits and inspections, raising questions about the utility of both. Supporters argue third-party audits are a way to ensure food safety in an era of dwindling economic resources. Critics contend that while external audits and inspections can be a valuable tool to help ensure safe food, such activities represent only a snapshot in time. This paper identifies limitations of food safety inspections and audits and provides recommendations for strengthening the system, based on developing a strong food safety culture, including risk-based verification steps, throughout the food safety system.

Seek and ye shall find: Multistate outbreak of listeriosis linked to Blue Bell Creameries products

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Douglas Powell

As Blue Bell ice cream thingies recalled more products, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced that eight people are now sick – including three dead — and that this is a complex and ongoing multistate outbreak of listeriosis occurring over an extended period.

Recent testing of product samples from the Blue Bell Creameries Oklahoma production facility identified Listeria monocytogenes strains in product sold at retail that were not included in the previous two recalls, including a pint of banana pudding ice cream.

On April 3, 2015, Blue Bell Creameries reported that they had voluntarily suspended operations at the Oklahoma production facility.

On April 4, 2015, Blue Bell Creameries began working with retailers to remove all products made in the Oklahoma production facility from the market.

On April 7, 2015, Blue Bell Creameries announced a third product recall that includes banana pudding ice cream pints and other products made on the same production line in the Oklahoma production facility from February 12, 2015 to

Today’s USA Today has a greatest hits of Listeria outbreaks, as well as a brief summary of why Listeria shows up and can be deadly.

As a food safety father of five daughters, Listeria is one of the things that always entered into food decisions.

Blue Bell suspending operations at its Broken Arrow facility after Listeria outbreak

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Blue Bell Creameries has voluntarily stopped operations at its manufacturing plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, so it can be inspected to determine out how some ice cream products recently were contaminated with listeria.

“We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution to ensure that we are doing everything possible to provide our consumers with safe products and to preserve the trust we have built with them and their families for more than a century,” said the company in a release.

The shut-down comes not long after listeria monocytogenes was found on a chocolate ice cream cup that was produced at the Broken Arrow plant on April 15, 2014, and recovered from a hospital in Wichita, Kansas.

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