Dive Brief:
- A fifth ice cream brand announced a recall related to the listeria-contaminated cookie dough that also caused Blue Bell, cookie dough supplier Aspen Hills and several other ice cream brands to recall some of their products, Food Safety News reported.
- The brand, Cedar Crest, said that it had just been notified about the contamination on Nov. 10, well over a month after Blue Bell first recalled its products and just under a month since the recall expanded and Aspen Hills notified its customers of the contamination.
- FDA spokespeople claim that while the agency is monitoring the recall, it cannot reveal Aspen Hill's corporate customers due to confidentiality laws.
Dive Insight:
Not long after initiating its recall, Blue Bell said the cookie dough had been contaminated at an Aspen Hills facility rather than one of their own. At the time, it was unclear who was to blame because Aspen Hills said it had tested the ingredients before they left the facility, and their results were negative for listeria.
Earlier on in the recall, Aspen Hills argued that Blue Bell was the only recipient of the contaminated ingredient. However, that has not been the case, and Aspen Hills later notified its other customers of the contaminated ingredient and four brands coming forward with their own recalls. This seems to substantiate Blue Bell's claims and confidence in its own safety program.
It's unclear whether the recall could continue to expand due to the FDA's refusal to reveal Aspen Hills' customer list. A similar scenario surrounded a mysterious sugar recall involving ConAgra and a handful of retailers earlier this year, which had to recall certain products because sugar had been contaminated with metal fragments. However, the FDA would not reveal the name of the supplier, citing the same corporate confidentiality laws. Any other potential customers of that supplier may not know about the contamination unless the supplier notified them directly.