Blue Bell Returning to Florida Soon

Tampa Bay area residents eager to dig into a pint of Blue Bell Ice Cream don’t have much longer to wait for the brand’s return to Florida.

The company has announced that it will make its return to the Sunshine State during the week of Jan. 25. Blue Bell products will also return to stores in southern Georgia and the southern tip of South Carolina that week. The company’s products were pulled from markets across the country following a listeria outbreak traced to one of its production plants.

“Our fans in phase five have been waiting on this news for a long time,” Ricky Dickson, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, said in a media release. “All of us at Blue Bell are very thankful for the patience and support our customers have shown during this time.”

See Also:

• Blue Bell Recall Expands to Include Everything

Blue Bell’s return won’t include its full lineup of ice cream products, however. The company says it’s only making buttered pecan, cookies ‘n cream, Dutch chocolate, homemade vanilla, peppermint, pistachio almond and The Great Divide at present.

The Texas-based company began noting problems with Listeria contamination in March 2015 and announced a recall of all of its products in April. Listeria is a potentially fatal organism that causes fever, headaches, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Following a retooling of all its production plants, Blue Bell recently began returning to grocery store shelves in some markets. While Blue Bell products are returning to stores across the country, the company is now the focus of a U.S. Justice Department investigation over its response to the listeria outbreak, CNN reported. The contamination has been linked to 10 cases of listeriosis with three possible deaths. Federal prosecutors are trying to determine if company executives mishandled the outbreak.

Prior to the Listeria incident, Blue Bell Ice Cream enjoyed more than a 100-year run without a single recall.

For more information about Blue Bell’s return to the Florida market, visit the company online.