More listeria found in single-cup Blue Bell ice cream from Via Christi

An ongoing investigation has detected listeria bacteria in an additional Blue Bell ice cream product in a Wichita hospital, the state said Tuesday.

The confirmed test result came back Sunday, Sara Belfry, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Tuesday.

In a news release, the state said that the hospital affected by the listeria outbreak stopped serving all Blue Bell products on March 9 at KDHE’s direction. Blue Bell has identified the hospital as Via Christi Hospital St. Francis.

On March 13, KDHE disclosed that five people in Kansas became ill because of an outbreak of listeria associated with Blue Bell Creameries products. Three of the five later died, “and Listeria was a contributing factor to death,” the state said.

In Tuesday’s news release, KDHE and the Kansas Department of Agriculture said that Blue Bell has recalled these 3-ounce ice cream cups with pull tab lids: ice cream cup chocolate, No UPC - SKU #453; ice cream cup strawberry: No UPC - SKU #452; and ice cream cup vanilla, No UPC - SKU #451.

KDHE, assisted by the agriculture department, collected environmental samples from the kitchen area of the hospital and collected containers from remaining Blue Bell ice cream products in the hospital, the state said in a news release. The hospital cooperated with the investigation, and none of the environmental samples from the kitchen tested positive for listeria, the state said.

“However, one sample taken from an unopened Blue Bell 3-ounce single serving ice cream cup tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes bacteria” at the Kansas Department of Agriculture laboratory.

That product was made at the Blue Bell Creameries in Broken Arrow, Okla., and was not included in an initial investigation, the release said. According to Blue Bell’s website, the positive test for listeria came from a chocolate cup taken from the Wichita hospital, and that the cup was produced in the Broken Arrow plant on April 15, 2014.

The state said that Blue Bell has disclosed that the cups recalled are offered only to institutions, such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools and are not for sale in retail sites. Tuesday’s news release has been sent statewide to school nurses, nursing homes, hospitals and local health departments, Belfry said.

More information about products recalled is on the Blue Bell website: http://cdn.bluebell.com/BB_withdrawal.

Officials don’t think any of the recalled products were available in Wichita schools, and as a precaution, a vendor has removed similar Blue Bell products, said Wichita school district spokeswoman Susan Arensman.

The Maize school district said in a news release Tuesday afternoon that it is no longer offering Blue Bell products in its lunchrooms. None of the items recalled were part of the district’s inventory, according to the news release.

Kansas officials are telling older adults, pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems not to consume Blue Bell products until more is known, the statement said.

Listeria symptoms include fever, muscle aches, diarrhea or other gastrointestinal problems. Symptoms start from three to 70 days after ingesting the bacteria.

Listeria can’t be spread from person to person, the state said. Anyone who thinks they might be ill with listeriosis should contact their health care provider, the state said.

This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 12:53 PM with the headline "More listeria found in single-cup Blue Bell ice cream from Via Christi."