Blue Bell recalls ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough pieces over Listeria concerns

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Blue Bell Ice Cream has issued a voluntary recall for its ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough pieces due to the potential for listeria.

The latest recall announcement was unwelcome news in Brenham.

Blue Bell says the products were produced in its Sylacauga, Alabama plant and made with a chocolate chip cookie dough ingredient supplied by Aspen Hills, Inc. This news as the brand continues recovering from last year's listeria recall.

"I watch the cars filling up the lots. It's not like it was," said Jim Ellison.

Ellison lives right down the street from Blue Bell's Brenham creamery. He put a sign of support for his Blue Bell family out in front of his house last year in the middle of the listeria outbreak that cost the company jobs and nearly $1 million.

"For this to happen just knocks the breath of me," Ellison said. "That's a shame."

The Brenham-based ice cream giant issued a voluntary recall for ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough because of the potential for Listeria. The company found the potential problem through testing and notified Aspen Hills, the company that made the cookie dough.

"Aspen Hills then issued a voluntary recall of the products supplied to Blue Bell. Although our products in the marketplace have passed our test and hold program, which requires that finished product samples test negative for Listeria monocytogenes, Blue Bell is initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution," the company said in a release.

"It's starting to put a bad name for Blue Bell and the community," said Brenham resident Shawn Smith.

The ice cream produced with the chocolate chip cookie dough pieces were distributed in the following ten states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Hours after the announcement, the Brenham High School homecoming parade rolled through downtown. Smith believes not everybody had heard the news.

"I'm glad we got to have our parade before that word came out. Either way we were gonna be out here supporting each other," he said.

The voluntary recall was news to Amanda Minor. She says she's not bothered.

"I'm gonna stand by Blue Bell 100 percent," she tells us. "I've eaten it my whole life. We were trying to scrounge and find ice cream the last time they did a recall. I wasn't concerned about what was found in there."

This tight-knit community hopes history doesn't repeat itself.

Blue Bell released the following statement to Eyewitness News:

"This voluntary recall does not affect our production facilities. The ingredient was produced and supplied to us from a third-party supplier, Aspen Hills. Although our products in the marketplace have passed our test and hold program, which requires that finished product samples test negative for listeria monocytogenes, Blue Bell is initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution."

Consumers should not eat the recalled products and are encouraged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.

No illnesses have been reported to date.