Many food safety regulators not testing for listeria in ice cream

Channel 2 Investigates uncovers shortcomings in inspections

AUSTIN – When an ice cream brand beloved by Texans ended up connected to 10 listeria illnesses, including three deaths, the news of the outbreak pitted Blue Bell loyalists against food safety advocates.

People flocked to the Brenham creamery to hold prayer vigils and held signs exclaiming, "We support Blue Bell."

But Channel 2 Investigates discovered food safety regulators in Texas were never testing inside the plant or in finished Blue Bell product for listeria. Currently, none of the 70 frozen dessert manufacturers licensed in Texas are being tested by state regulators for listeria.  

Federal regulators do not test plants for listeria either, unless it's in response to an outbreak.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends that companies test their finished products for pathogens such as listeria, but they are not required to hold the product for release until tests confirm it's negative.  

The guidelines from the FDA are also just guidelines, not requirements.

That should have changed when the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in 2011, but to date, the FDA has not fully implemented it.

A federal judge has now ordered the FDA to have the mandates in place by August. 

"I think we have a lot of different controls in place to find issues with firms; I will tell you organisms are sneaky," said Julie Loera, a safety officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Listeria is one of them.

For years, DSHS and the FDA have considered ice cream a low-risk food for the bacteria.

The FDA's draft guidance on listeria prevention, which was issued in 2008, even mentions ice cream as an example of a frozen food that is not of concern.

Lois Parker said she would have never considered it, either.

Her husband died in a Kansas hospital after contracting listeriosis.

At the time, he was on the road to recovery after a long treatment for cancer. The illness caught Parker and her family by surprise.

It was another six months before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention connected his death to Blue Bell ice cream he'd eaten in the hospital.

"If it weren't for the decision of a lab rat in South Carolina, who decided to pull a pint of Blue Bell ice cream and test it, nobody would have known about this outbreak," said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based food safety attorney.

On Feb. 12, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control found a positive sample of listeria monocytogenes in Blue Bell ice cream at a distribution facility.

The testing was part of a random sampling program between South Carolina and the FDA. 

DSHS said it has similar sampling programs with the FDA, it just has never utilized them to test ice cream.

"Since September 2014, DSHS has collected 101 ready-to-eat food samples for listeria testing. To date, all of those samples have reported out at negative. The samples includes such foods as soft cheeses, dips, cheese, hummus, sandwiches and packaged deli meats," said Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for the agency.

But the Blue Bell outbreak was not the first time listeria was found in ice cream. 

The Washington Department of Agriculture found the bacteria in Snoqualmie brand ice cream in December, and the company issued an immediate recall on a year's worth of products.

The day after listeria was found in Blue Bell by South Carolina officials, DSHS confirmed positive tests in samples of product at the Brenham creamery. It was a full month later before the company issued a recall.

Williams said a product withdrawal was issued within a few days while the state collected samples from the plant for additional testing. 

"Based on the test results and the subsequent links to cases (not active cases, cases were from previous years), the situation and the recall expanded in March and April," she said in an email.

DSHS released an agreement Thursday with Blue Bell that the company will begin testing and holding product over the next two years.

The agreement also allows for the state to begin routine listeria testing in the facility. 

That agreement applies to Blue Bell, but there has been no other agreement made with the 70 other frozen dessert manufacturing facilities in Texas. 

DSHS does test such facilities for coliform.


About the Authors:

Passionate consumer advocate, mom of 3, addicted to coffee, hairspray and pastries.