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Blue Bell must notify the Texas Department of State Health Services at least two weeks before its intent to start producing ice cream for sale so health officials can conduct a full assessment of the company’s progress and test results. The company must conduct trial production runs of ice cream that will be tested separately by DSHS and the company for Listeria monocytogenes. The products must consistently test negative before they can be distributed to the public. A trial run with negative test results must occur for each production line before the line can begin making ice cream for sale.
State health inspectors will be on site at the Brenham plant regularly to evaluate test results and monitor the trial runs. The company will be testing ice cream, ingredients, food surfaces, machinery and other equipment in its Brenham plant for Listeria monocytogenes and allow state health inspectors to review all results.
For at least two years after resuming production, Blue Bell must report any presumptive positive test result for Listeria monocytogenes in a product or ingredient to DSHS within 24 hours. For at least one year after resuming production, Blue Bell must implement “test and hold” procedures for all finished product, meaning products made at the Brenham plant must have negative test results before they can be distributed for sale to the public.
http://kwhi.com/health-officials-list-steps-for-blue-bell-to-restart-production/#comment-35940
If the FSIS can’t get a recall, it has the option to issue a public health alert to consumers signaling that it has concerns about a certain product or company. The alerts serve to give consumers instructions on what to do if they have a potentially tainted product, such as how to safely cook it or dispose of it.
In 2013, for example, the FSIS had yet to find the exact match between the salmonella Heidelberg that was making people sick and the Foster Farms products it inspected, so it issued a public health alert. At that point in the outbreak, 278 people across 18 states had already gotten sick.
But critics argue that a public health alert is not nearly as effective as a recall. With Foster Farms, the public health alert was issued in October, but the outbreak lasted another nine months and sickened around 350 more people.
“Recall is really where you want to go, because consumers know what that means. Companies know what that means,” Waldrop said. “A public health alert doesn’t have the same sort of affect in consumers’ mind … A recall really has more gravitas to it.
For the most part, public health alerts are rare. In 2014, for example, the FSIS only issued two public health alerts. The year before, there was only one.
The FDA has safety alerts and advisories too, but they are more general consumer advice about certain products.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...t-happens-after-a-foodborne-illness-outbreak/
State health inspectors will be on site at the Brenham plant regularly to evaluate test results and monitor the trial runs. The company will be testing ice cream, ingredients, food surfaces, machinery and other equipment in its Brenham plant for Listeria monocytogenes and allow state health inspectors to review all results.
For at least two years after resuming production, Blue Bell must report any presumptive positive test result for Listeria monocytogenes in a product or ingredient to DSHS within 24 hours. For at least one year after resuming production, Blue Bell must implement “test and hold” procedures for all finished product, meaning products made at the Brenham plant must have negative test results before they can be distributed for sale to the public.
http://kwhi.com/health-officials-list-steps-for-blue-bell-to-restart-production/#comment-35940
If the FSIS can’t get a recall, it has the option to issue a public health alert to consumers signaling that it has concerns about a certain product or company. The alerts serve to give consumers instructions on what to do if they have a potentially tainted product, such as how to safely cook it or dispose of it.
In 2013, for example, the FSIS had yet to find the exact match between the salmonella Heidelberg that was making people sick and the Foster Farms products it inspected, so it issued a public health alert. At that point in the outbreak, 278 people across 18 states had already gotten sick.
But critics argue that a public health alert is not nearly as effective as a recall. With Foster Farms, the public health alert was issued in October, but the outbreak lasted another nine months and sickened around 350 more people.
“Recall is really where you want to go, because consumers know what that means. Companies know what that means,” Waldrop said. “A public health alert doesn’t have the same sort of affect in consumers’ mind … A recall really has more gravitas to it.
For the most part, public health alerts are rare. In 2014, for example, the FSIS only issued two public health alerts. The year before, there was only one.
The FDA has safety alerts and advisories too, but they are more general consumer advice about certain products.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...t-happens-after-a-foodborne-illness-outbreak/
