Blue Bell must pay $17M over outbreak

Brenham-based ice cream company had pleaded guilty after 3 died in listeria case

Texas ice cream maker Blue Bell Creameries has been ordered to pay $17.25 million in criminal penalties for the 2015 deadly listeria outbreak that led to the deaths of three people and forced the company to recall all its products.

The sentence against Blue Bell, which is based in Brenham, was handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Blue Bell pleaded guilty in May to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products. The sentence “was consistent with the terms of a plea agreement previously filed in the case,” according to the Justice Department.

The $17.25 million fine and forfeiture amount is the largest-ever criminal penalty after a conviction in a food safety case, the department said.

“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 written 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.”

Blue Bell, one of the country’s largest ice cream makers, suffered significant financial losses because of the outbreak. The company, which got its start 111 years ago, shut down production for a time in 2015 and recalled 8 million gallons of ice cream after reports of listeria started coming in. In all, 10 people fell ill and three died.

Blue Bell’s former CEO, Paul Kruse, was separately charged in May with criminal conspiracy. Pitman dismissed those charges in July.

Kruse, who retired in 2017, was facing felony charges alleging that he directed a conspiracy to conceal unsanitary conditions and the deadly listeria outbreak.