Where’s the Blue Bell? Texans search for beloved ice cream

For Texans who love ice cream — and that’s pretty much all of us, right? — springtime just isn’t the same without baseball, bluebonnets and Blue Bell.

That’s why Dallas-Fort Worth residents are hoping they dodged a bullet in recent days, as thousands of cartons of their favorite frozen treats were pulled from grocery store shelves. The Brenham-based ice cream company is dealing with its first recall in 108 years, after reports that some of its products were linked to the foodborne illness listeria.

On Tuesday, Blue Bell Creameries expanded its recall of products manufactured at the Broken Arrow, Okla., plant to include pint-size packages of Banana Pudding Ice Cream after it tested positive for listeria.

However, in a positive sign for the company, Kroger stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were fully restocked with varieties of the ice cream not affected by the recall.

“I came home from Brazil and thought, ‘What’s going on?’ My wife had texted me that there was something going on with Blue Bell. I thought it was a joke and she was just teasing me. The whole church makes fun of me because I like Blue Bell ice cream,” said Bob Roberts, a pastor at Northwood Church in Keller who sometimes speaks of his love for the company’s Homemade Vanilla flavor in sermons.

“I want them to get fixed, get it back on the shelf and keep it Texan,” Roberts said.

Three people who died in Kansas had contracted listeria after eating Blue Bell ice cream products made at a now-closed creamery in northeast Oklahoma. In all, five people at a Kansas hospital were sickened after eating products from a single Blue Bell production line, according to a statement by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During an investigation, listeria bacteria were found in samples of Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars and Scoops, the Food and Drug Administration reported. The FDA recalled those products, and seven others made on the same production line.

Then on Tuesday evening, Blue Bell officials issued a statement on the company’s website announcing it was expanding its recall of products made in the Broken Arrow, Okla., plant to include Banana Pudding Ice Cream made between Feb. 15 and March 27.

“Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria monocytogenes infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women,” the statement read.

The recall didn’t slow down business at a Burger Box restaurant in Euless, where employee Drelon Lang filled one order after another for Blue Bell cones and shakes Tuesday. Employees reported no noticeable dip in sales in recent weeks.

“It’s the best,” Lang said. “I like pecan pralines and cream.”

But in grocery stores across the nation, including Wal-Marts, Sam’s Clubs and Krogers in North Texas, half-gallons, single-serving cartons and other containers of Blue Bell were yanked off the shelves. Products affected by the recall are stamped with a product code ending with the letter S, P, O, R, T or Q.

Even the Houston Astros pulled Blue Bell products from their concessions Monday for opening day.

The Texas Rangers haven’t decided whether to continue with plans to serve Blue Bell products at the club’s home opener Friday. The Rangers’ opening weekend is scheduled to feature a promotion known as Blue Bell Ice Cream Sunday, at which children 13 and under get $1 ice cream.

“The Rangers and our Globe Life Park in Arlington concessionaire, Metroplex Sportservice, are committed to providing a quality and safe experience for all of our fans,” Rangers spokesman John Blake said. “With the home opener on Friday we have been in discussions with Blue Bell and are in the process of evaluating the situation.”

At a Carnival supermarket in north Fort Worth on Monday, hundreds of Blue Bell cartons were removed from a freezer that took up most of a shopping aisle. Only a handful of chocolate-based ice cream products, Moo Bars and fruit bars remained.

A half-gallon of Marbled Cream Cheese Brownie was available for $3.99 – about $2 below the regular price. A store manager there said only the Blue Bell inventory with the appropriate product codes had been discarded – but that amounted to nearly all the store’s Blue Bell supply.

This report includes material from The Associated Press.

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Where’s the Blue Bell? Texans search for beloved ice cream."