More than 60 ice cream products recalled over possible listeria contamination
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It is hot out there. Millions of Americans are facing record heat and just trying to stay cool. But, you know, just this week, there is news that dozens of ice cream products are being recalled by a Maryland food company over possible listeria contamination. NPR's Joe Hernandez has been following this story and joins us now. Hi, Joe.
JOE HERNANDEZ, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: So I hear that - what - more than 60 ice cream products are being recalled? This is such terrible timing. What are the products?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, so this is being done by a company called Totally Cool in Owings Mills, Md., and it includes brands people have probably heard of before, like Hershey's, Friendly's, Chipwich, Jeni's ice cream. And the products themselves include things like pints of ice cream and sorbet, as well as ice cream cakes, ice cream sandwiches, cones. There's a full list of specific recalled products linked on our website.
CHANG: And what are federal health officials saying about what people should do?
HERNANDEZ: Well, the Food and Drug Administration is urging anybody who bought any of this ice cream to return it for a refund. And you can know for sure if you have an affected product by looking at the date and the plant code on the label. The FDA says it found the presence of listeria during sampling, but so far, no illnesses have been reported. And the agency says, Totally Cool has stopped production. They're investigating what happened, and they're taking so-called preventive actions.
CHANG: OK. Well, what have the company and all these brands whose products are being impacted - saying about what's happening?
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, so NPR reached out to Totally Cool about the recall, but they didn't immediately reply to our request for comment. But some of the brands have released statements. Chipwich said its parent company has a small production line at the Maryland facility and that the recall was taken out of an abundance of caution. Chipwich called the recall unfortunate. And then Hershey's ice cream said in a statement that it's stopped sales of the potentially impacted products. And Hershey's is asking consumers and dealers to throw away any products they already had on hand.
CHANG: Oh, man, such a waste. Well, what kind of risk exactly does a listeria infection pose to people? I don't really know.
HERNANDEZ: Yeah, so the FDA says people who eat food contaminated with listeria bacteria could get a serious and sometimes even fatal infection. And that's especially true for certain groups, so we're talking about young children, the elderly, people with weakened immune systems. And it also poses a danger to pregnant people. They can suffer miscarriages or stillbirths from a listeria infection.
The FDA says healthy people who eat contaminated food might experience a more mild illness with symptoms like high fever or headaches or nausea. According to the CDC, about 1,600 people are infected with listeriosis every year. And of those, about 260 people die.
CHANG: That is NPR's Joe Hernandez reporting. Thank you so much, Joe.
HERNANDEZ: You're welcome.
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