Blue Bell must pay record $17 million fine for listeria outbreak in ice cream, feds say

Blue Bell was ordered to pay a record fine for contaminated products connected to a 2015 listeria outbreak, according to the Justice Department.

The company pleaded guilty in May “to misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products” and U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman sentenced Blue Bell, based in Brenham, Texas, to pay a record $17.25 million fine, according to a news release. The fine is “the largest-ever criminal penalty following a conviction in a food safety case.”

“American consumers must be able to trust that the foods they purchase are safe to eat,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement. “The sentence imposed today sends a clear message to food manufacturers that the Department of Justice will take appropriate actions when contaminated food products endanger consumers.”

The plea agreement alleges Blue Bell distributed ice cream products contaminated with “Listeria monocytogenes, in violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.”

The listeria bacteria causes listeriosis, which mainly affects pregnant women, older adults, newborns, and those with weakened immune systems, according to the CDC. Listeriosis can result in serious illness in newborns or fetuses. Symptoms include fever and diarrhea.

Texas officials told Blue Bell in February 2015 that two products from its Brenham factory tested positive for listeria. The company told drivers to remove the products from stores, but it didn’t recall them or notify customers about the contamination, according to release, citing the plea agreement. Officials then told Blue Bell that a third product tested positive for listeria, but the company didn’t communicate that to customers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked Blue Bell products to five listeria patients at a Kansas hospital in March 2015, according to the release. Blue Bell, the FDA and CDC all issued recalls on March 13, 2015 and listeria was found at a Blue Bell factory in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, resulting in a second recall about a week later.

Sanitation issues were revealed by FDA inspections in March and April 2015 at the Broken Arrow and Brenham facilities, including issues with the hot water for cleaning equipment and “deteriorating factory conditions that could lead to insanitary water dripping into product mix during the manufacturing process,” the release read.

Blue Bell plants were temporarily shut down in April 2015 for cleaning and reopened in late 2015.

Former Blue Bell CEO Paul Kruse was charged in May for trying to cover up the outbreak, McClatchy News reported. He was charged for seven felony counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy.

Prosecutors accused executives at Blue Bell of knowing about the conditions at factories since at least 2010, according to McClatchy News. Test results for coliform bacteria was “off the charts for years,” prosecutors said.

Kruse is accused of telling an employee to stop testing some products for listeria and to destroy records of such testing, according to prosecutors. Charges against Kruse were dismissed in July due to lack of “subject matter jurisdiction,” Food Safety News reported.