Blue Bell Creameries was given the OK from Alabama state officials on Wednesday to resume ice cream production, according to a Reuters report. The creamery's Alabama plant has been shut down since a listeriosis outbreak was linked to its products.
Between January 2014 and January of this year, several patients developed listeriosis during their hospitalizations at Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kan., after eating Blue Bell products It was later revealed that 10 cases of listeria in four states were linked to the ice cream.
After the outbreak was traced back to Blue Bell, the company pulled all of its ice cream and other frozen products off the shelves in the 25 states where it had been sold. As a result of the shut down, Blue Bell laid off more than a third of its workforce, according to the report.
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Despite being inspected and approved by the Bureau of Health Promotion in the Alabama Department of Public Health, the Texas-based ice cream maker has yet to announce when it will resume production or when its products will be on the market again.
As for Via Christi, the hospital system found a new ice cream vendor back when Blue Bell pulled all of its products and has "no plans to make any changes," Via Christi Director of Communications and Public Relations Roz Hutchinson told Becker's.
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Value of teamwork: How Via Christi linked listeria infections to ice cream