Three hospital patients die after 'eating ice cream' as company recalls product from shelves

 

A US dairy company has pulled products from shelves after three hospital patients died with food poisoning 'from eating ice cream'.
The deaths has prompted Texan-based Blue Bell to recall some of its range for the first time in its 108-year history.
A total of five patients at a hospital in Kansas contracted listeriosis after they were infected with a rare strain of listeria. Three of them died.

The five patients were receiving treatment for unrelated health problems at the same hospital before developing listeriosis, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
It is believed four of the five had consumed milkshake ice creams produced by Blue Bell.
The cases range from January 2014 to January 2015.
According the the US Food and Drug Administration three of these strains have also been found in products manufactured at the Blue Bell Creameries production site.
The US Food and Drug Administration says five people in all developed listeriosis in Kansas after eating products from one production line at the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham, Texas.
The FDA says listeria bacteria were found in samples of Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars, Sour Pop Green Apple Bars, Cotton Candy Bars, Scoops, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars and No Sugar Added Moo Bars.
Blue Bell says its regular Moo Bars were untainted, as were its half gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three-gallon ice cream and take-home frozen snack novelties.
A statement on its website says: "All five case patients are adults. Three deaths have been reported.
"Blue Bell Creameries reports that it has removed the affected ice cream products from the market.
"The company has also shut down the production line where the products were made."

 

Recall: Blue Bell's home page which shows the firm has withdrawn some of its products

"For the first time in 108 years, Blue Bell announces a product recall.
"One of our machines produced a limited amount of frozen snacks with a potential listeria problem.
"When this was detected all products produced by this machine were withdrawn. Our Blue Bell team members recovered all involved products in stores and storage.
"This withdrawal in no way includes our half gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three gallon ice cream or the majority of take-home frozen snack novelties."

The New York Daily News reports that the listeria isolated from specimens that were taken from patients at Via Christi St Francis Hospital.
A spokeswoman for Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita says five patients became ill with listeriosis during their hospitalizations for unrelated causes between December 2013 and January 2015.
Spokeswoman Maria Loving says hospital officials were unaware that some items produced on one of the 25 production lines at Blue Bell's Central Texas creamery had been contaminated with listeria bacteria.
She said all Blue Bell Creameries products were immediately removed from all Via Christi Health facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma once the potential contamination was discovered.
Paul Cruse, chief executive of Blue Bell, said the firm pulled suspected products from shelves as soon as it was alerted to the scare.
Listeriosis is a life-threatening infection caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria called listeria monocytogenes.
It primarily affects pregnant women and their newborns, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems.
Symptoms usually include fever and muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhoea.
Bacteria can spread from the intestines to the blood, causing infection, or to the central nervous system, potentially causing meningitis.
Symptoms usually start within several days of eating contaminated food but can take up to two months to materialise.