Blue Bell reopens plant in Brenham
Blue Bell Creameries restarted its Brenham plant Wednesday, crossing a major milestone in its recovery from a listeria outbreak that put it on the brink of financial ruin.
The reopening also is a boost for the Brenham economy as 70 furloughed employees have returned to work. No laid-off employees have been called back.
“We are excited to announce that Blue Bell Ice Cream is once again being made at our main production plant in Brenham,” said Greg Bridges, vice president of operations, in a prepared statement. “Over the past several months we have been preparing our facility for this day. We are very thankful for the patience and support our customers have shown Blue Bell.”
Brenham was the last of the major plants to come back online. A smaller fourth plant in
Brenham, which produced frozen novelties before the listeria outbreak, remains shuttered.
The big plant will have to prove that products are safe before they can be sold. Production will be closely monitored and ice cream tested, with no firm date for when it will be distributed for sale, the company said. Agreements with state health officials stipulate close coordination as the products return to market.
Two hundred and thirty Brenham employees remain furloughed and 250 had been laid off, but the restart is still a relief in Washington County, which had a much broader industrial slowdown this year with hundreds more jobs cut at several different companies.
“We will continue to bring back more furloughed employees as production and distribution increases,” spokeswoman Jenny Van Dorf said.
The company released a video featuring longtime employees thanking customers and expressing joy at returning to work. Other plants already reopen
The rebirth of Blue Bell’s largest and oldest major plant means the company can keep up momentum on a slow and deliberate revival, with products returning to stores one region at a time, in limited flavors and only a few states.
Blue Bell resumed production at its Sylacauga, Ala., and Broken Arrow, Okla., facilities in July and September, respectively.
“We anticipate that our new procedures and enhancements that have already been implemented in Alabama and Oklahoma will also be effective in Texas,” Bridges said. “For now we will produce a limited number of products at each facility.”
Tours will not resume at Brenham, but its store, visitor center and ice cream parlor are open.
Reopening the plant posed a formidable challenge. Former employees told the Houston Chronicle that the plant for years had poor water temperature and pressure, workers rushed through cleaning procedures and management failed to create a robust machine safety program, leading to finger amputations and other injuries. Those findings were supported by government documents.
The employees said food and worker safety eroded while the company made a meteoric rise to the top of the ice cream industry. It became one of the top three players despite operating in only half the U.S., competing directly with multinational conglomerates Unilever and Nestlé. Blue Bell, a 108-year-old company, doubled its reach in just 13 years.
Following what has been standard practice in the food industry, Blue Bell had tested plant surfaces and found listeria, but never extended its tests to food production equipment or the ice cream itself until customers were already sick, U.S. Food and Drug Administration records showed. The case has been widely cited in discussions about new federal food safety rules, passed this year, that put more pressure on companies to monitor for pathogens and respond to positive test results. Sanitation changes made
In public statements since the outbreak, Blue Bell officials acknowledged sanitation programs weren’t as good as they should have been, but they haven’t gone into specifics or responded directly to the Chronicle’s findings, citing pending litigation. They outlined a bevy of changes and emphasized that worker safety, sanitation and training remain Blue Bell’s highest priorities as it works to improve.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked listeria in Blue Bell products to 10 illnesses and three deaths in four states since 2010. The link to the earliest illnesses wasn’t confirmed until new cases surfaced early this year when South Carolina officials found the bacteria in samples during random testing.
Former Houston resident Phil Shockley has filed a federal suit alleging that Blue Bell caused his listeria illness, which left him with brain damage. There was no way for the CDC to link his case to any food-borne outbreak because epidemiologists couldn’t locate a bacterial specimen taken from his body. Blue Bell has denied it caused his illness. The case is set for trial in 2017.
Brent McRae, a Florida man, claims he contracted listeriosis from a half-gallon of Blue Bell ice cream that tested positive for listeria. The CDC didn’t identify his case in the outbreak, but McRae was never tested for listeria by his doctors. His lawyers are in talks with the company.
The listeria outbreak shut down production at Blue Bell in April. The next month, Blue Bell put 1,400 employees companywide on furlough with partial pay and laid off another 1,450. The workforce had been 3,900.
In July, oil baron Sid Bass made a multimillion-dollar investment in the company, and by the end of August, the ice cream was back on store shelves in limited areas.