Ice Cream Maker Blue Bell to Plead Guilty, Pay $19 Million Over Listeria Outbreak

Reuters
By Reuters
May 3, 2020Business News
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Texas-based ice cream manufacturer Blue Bell Creameries has agreed to pay $19.35 million and plead guilty to charges that it shipped contaminated products linked to a 2015 listeriosis outbreak, the Justice Department said on May 1.

Prosecutors also filed charges in federal court in Austin, Texas, against the company’s former president, Paul Kruse, who they said participated in a scheme to conceal from customers what Blue Bell knew about the listeria contamination.

The Justice Department alleged Blue Bell distributed ice cream that was made under insanitary conditions and contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially life-threatening pathogen.

Blue Bell Ice Cream on shelves of a grocery store
Blue Bell Ice Cream on shelves of a grocery store in Overland Park, Kansas on April 21, 2015. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

In February 2015, state officials in Texas notified Blue Bell that two ice cream products from a factory in Brenham, Texas tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes.

While Blue Bell took steps to remove the remaining stock of the two products from store shelves, it did not recall them or warn consumers about the contamination, nor did it after Texas officials found listeria in a third product, prosecutors said.

The company ultimately recalled the ice cream after 10 reported cases of listeria in four states were linked to its products. Three of the people sickened, all hospital patients in Kansas, later died.

Blue Bell in a statement said the plea deal involves events five years ago before it shut down and revamped its facilities. It said it was determined today to “make the safest, most delicious ice cream available.”

“We apologize to everyone who was impacted, including our customers, our employees and the communities where we live and work,” the company said.

Blue Bell Ice Cream truck
A Blue Bell Ice Cream truck is seen outside a Wal-Mart store in Overland Park, Kan., on April 21, 2015. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Chris Flood, a lawyer for Kruse, said his client was innocent and with other Blue Bell employees “did the best they could with the information they had at the time.”

As part of its plea agreement, Blue Bell agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products and pay $17.25 million.

It also agreed to pay another $2.1 million to resolve civil claims regarding ice cream made under insanitary conditions and sold to federal facilities in violation of the False Claims Act, the department said.

By Nate Raymond

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