Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries L.P. has been ordered to pay $17.25 million in criminal penalties for shipments of contaminated ice cream products linked to a 2015 listeriosis outbreak, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Blue Bell pleaded guilty in May 2020 to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products. Imposed by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, the sentence was consistent with the terms of a previously filed plea agreement, the Justice Department said.
The $17.25 million fine and forfeiture amount is the largest-ever criminal penalty following a conviction in a food safety case.
Blue Bell, headquartered in Brenham, Texas, had originally agreed to pay $19.35 million and plead guilty to charges of shipping the contaminated product, according to an April 2020 Justice Department announcement.
The plea agreement and criminal information filed against Blue Bell allege the company distributed ice cream products that were manufactured under insanitary conditions and contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
According to the plea agreement, Texas state officials notified Blue Bell in February 2015 that samples of two ice cream products from the company’s Brenham factory tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. Blue Bell had its delivery route drivers remove remaining stock of the two products from store shelves, but did not recall the products or inform customers about potential Listeria contamination. Additionally, after Texas officials two weeks later confirmed Listeria in a third Blue Bell product, the company again chose not to issue any formal notification to customers regarding the positive tests.
After a strain of Listeria in another Blue Bell product in March 2015 was linked to five patients at a Kansas hospital with listeriosis, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Blue Bell all issued public recall notifications.
Confirmed Listeria contamination in a product made at Blue Bell’s facility in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, led to a second recall announcement on March 23, 2015.
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