The Blue Bell Ice Cream container is seen empty Tuesday at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Oxford, Miss. (DM Photo | Cady Herring)
The university and Oxford community are making adjustments after Blue Bell Creameries announced a nation-wide recall of all its products on April 20 due to the findings of listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
Though the bacteria was only found in Blue Bell’s cookie dough ice cream half-gallons produced in March, there is a small chance all of Blue Bell’s products could have been contaminated. This means Blue Bell ice cream, frozen yogurt and sherbet cartons of every size were taken off the shelves until the products can be proven safe to consume.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, a total of 10 patients infected with different strains of listeria were reported in four states, none of which were from Mississippi. Three people in Kansas have died whose strains matched those found in a Blue Bell facility.
In the Oxford area, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Holli’s Sweet Tooth, Walmart and other locations have halted the sale of Blue Bell products until the ice cream is cleared to eat. Ole Miss Dining is also following their example.
Marketing director for Aramark Richard Bradley said that the P.O.D. Markets in some of the residence halls including Lamar and Guyton pulled Blue Bell ice cream in response to the recall. The ice cream taken out of the freezers was picked up by Aramark’s distributers for testing.
“It was a safety issue even to the point when someone had tweeted on our Twitter page asking why there was still Blue Bell at the P.O.D. I immediately responded and asked at which P.O.D.,” Bradley said. “They didn’t respond, so I immediately walked out to every P.O.D. with our manager in charge of the P.O.D.s. And we were scrambling to make sure all the Blue Bell products were pulled from the shelves.”
Bradley said the person eventually responded to the tweet saying they saw the Blue Bell the day before the recall.
Bradley said he doesn’t see Aramark and the P.O.D. Markets replacing Blue Bell because it is so close to the end of the school year and the P.O.D Markets will be closed for the summer. If the recall isn’t lifted by next semester, however, Bradley said he imagines there will be some complaints from the students.
While listeria is a common bacteria to which everyone is exposed, people with weakened immune responses, such as pregnant women or people over 60, are most likely to get sick from it, Dr. Skip Nolan, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said in a press release. Symptoms are primarily gastrointestinal and include fever, nausea, diarrhea, severe headaches, abdominal pain and cramps.
