What is listeria in ice cream?

Listeria monocytogenes is a type of bacteria that could lead to serious illness or even death when consumed by certain age brackets, especially young children, elders, and those with weakened immune systems. For pregnant women, listeria could lead to a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Listeriosis is a severe kind of food poisoning caused by the Listeria bacteria, which is commonly found in soil and water.

There a chance of contamination for dairy products, such as ice cream, when milk used from cows is infected with the bacteria. Listeria bacteria can survive refrigeration and even freezing.

While millions of Americans find ways to cool down during the record summer heat, a Maryland-based food manufacturer recalls multiple brands of ice cream products sold nationwide, which may have been contaminated with listeria.

Totally Cool Inc. has recalled 68 ice cream products across 13 brands due to fears that they may have been contaminated with listeria, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Monday.

More than 60 ice cream products from Totally Inc’s brands such as Hershey’s, Jeni’s, Friendly’s, Chipwich, and more have been recalled, according to a press release on the FDA’s website.

This recall impacts no other products made by the company.

Pints of ice cream and sorbet, as well as ice cream cakes, sandwiches, cones, and other dairy products, are potentially tainted.

Totally Cool stopped the production and distribution of the products as soon as FDA sampling detected the presence of listeria, the agency said.

The products were nationally distributed and available in retail stores and direct delivery, the FDA said.

Till now, no illnesses have been reported.

Consumers who have the recalled products in hand have been urged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.

For queries, one can contact Cool at 410-363-7801 and also mail them at regulatory@totallycoolicecream.com, between 8am and 4pm from Monday to Friday.

Depending on the severity of the disease, symptoms could last from days to weeks. Fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea are some of the mild symptoms.

Whereas, in the case of serious or advanced listeriosis, symptoms include headache, disorientation, stiff neck, dizziness, and convulsions (uncontrolled shaking).

For the very young, elderly, and immunocompromised, serious or advanced stages of listeriosis could potentially lead to death.