3 Kansas hospital patients die of ice cream-related illness

[El Supremo]

Source: AP - Yahoo News

DALLAS (AP) — Officials at a Wichita, Kansas, hospital say five people who fell ill with listeriosis after consuming a Blue Bell ice cream product became sick while patients in their hospital. Three of the people died.

A spokeswoman for Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita says five patients became ill with listeriosis during their hospitalizations for unrelated causes between December 2013 and January 2015.

Spokeswoman Maria Loving says hospital officials were unaware that some items produced on one of the 25 production lines at Blue Bell's Central Texas creamery had been contaminated with listeria bacteria. She said all Blue Bell Creameries products were immediately removed from all Via Christi Health facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma once the potential contamination was discovered.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-warns-illness-linked-select-blue-bell-confections-212652513.html

---

I just bought two pints of Blue Bell last night! They aren't part of the recall, but they went down the sink. Blue Bell is a damn Repuke company. And that did it for me.

[Warpy]

1. Unfortunately, they've also got the best sugar free stuff

I suppose after the present pint is gone, it'll be back to Creamland, not any bluer but at least more local.

Or I could just eat the stuff with the sugar in it, I'm not diabetic yet. I just don't want to be.

[C Moon]

3. This article says you should toss even if it didn't make you ill, it if it's on the list...

"Consumers should not eat any of the products listed above. If these ice cream products are in your freezer, they should be thrown away, even if some of them have been eaten without anyone becoming ill."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/13/fatal-listeria-cases-linked-blue-bell-ice-cream/70301348/

[840high]

6. Thanks.

[Warpy]

9. It's not on the list

Novelties were on the list. Stuff in containers was not.

[C Moon]

31. +1

[1monster]

27. Blue Bunny's no added sugar ice cream products are very good if you

Can get it in your area... and it costs less.

[hedgehog]

42. Eat your ice cream with real sugar in it in moderation, and you'll be fine.

Could artificial sweeteners promote diabetes and obesity?

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282604.php

[father founding]

43. the Fanjul brothers

Don't think they had any influence in publishing that article ?

[Warpy]

44. No link has ever been proven

However, sugar does promote these things and that has been proven.

[Mnemosyne]

2. Remember when we could usually eat without fear, unless Grandma had been losing her touch

when canning tomatoes?

Blue Bell had the best butter pecan, can't get it up North. I did not know they were a red company. I imagine their employee policies are as less than ideal as they can manage.

I want my food handled by people that feel respected in their work.

[El Supremo]

5. Here ya go:

[abelenkpe]

8. Lakers?!

Damn.

[SunSeeker]

16. LA Galaxy. Sigh. I thought the GOP hated soccer. Apparently not....

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/16/the-man-who-owns-l-a

[valerief]

30. Thanks!

[Blue_Tires]

33. New Balance?

GOD DAMMITT

[PearliePoo2]

52. Yeah, damn-it indeed..I just ordered two pairs of NB work shoes!

Aw shit, it's so depressing.
The fucking Re-thugs. It seems they're everywhere with their greedy, corporate claws in everything!

[Anansi1171]

51. Come on. Amway facists DeVos family owns the Orlando Magic, but the Lakers?

Is this because of the minority-ownership of AEG? Has to be with the Kings and Galaxy.

[undeterred]

54. Waffle House?

Is nothing sacred?

[Warpy]

11. Well, Grandma also came from the generation that boiled the hell out of everything

and 10 minutes at a boil will take care of botulin toxin, although the food won't taste very good and will be rendered into mush. Boiling canned stuff, home or commercial, rendered it safer.

She also tended to cook her meats--overcook them, actually, none of this bloody meat for her.

[El Supremo]

12. Me too

And I ain't dead yet.

[hollowdweller]

15. Sort of a myth

My wife worked for the Health Dept and she had an old log from like the 20's. Tons of people got sick from drinking raw milk and got botulisim and other food poisioning all the time back then. The food supply is way safer now.

[Warpy]

17. Yes, there's a good reason the sale of raw milk is banned

Food poisoning was much more of a problem before refrigeration, cooked food kept under fly cloths at room temperature and then reheated, often not reheated enough because people were hungry.

Ice boxes just weren't up to the job, either, since the temperature inside them varied widely. They'd keep the milk from spoiling and the butter from melting but were unreliable for cooked foods. That second night chili was risky as hell.

[Major Nikon]

23. The sale of raw milk isn't banned

The FDA just bans intrastate commerce of raw milk (which isn't a bad idea because it doesn't keep as long).

You can still buy raw milk in many, if not most states, and as long as the state guidelines are followed, it's perfectly safe. There hasn't been a single death attributed to liquid raw milk in about 30 years and the very few deaths attributed to raw milk cheese products were from unlicensed mom-and-pop operations making "bathtub cheese" that weren't following state regulations. The CDC and the FDA are doing a huge favor to big milk by promoting the flawed idea that raw milk is unsafe.

[du_grad]

47. I found a link from CDC that disproves your statement

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/raw-milk-questions-and-answers.html#related-outbreaks

"How many outbreaks are related to raw milk?

CDC collects data on foodborne disease outbreaks voluntarily reported by the state, local, territorial, or tribal health departments. The health departments conduct most outbreak investigations reported to CDC. The data reported may change frequently as reporting agencies enter new records and modify or delete old ones.

Among dairy product-associated outbreaks reported to CDC between 1998 and 2011 in which the investigators reported whether the product was pasteurized or raw, 79% were due to raw milk or cheese. From 1998 through 2011, 148 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC. These resulted in 2,384 illnesses, 284 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. Most of these illnesses were caused by Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, or Listeria. It is important to note that a substantial proportion of the raw milk-associated disease burden falls on children; among the 104 outbreaks from 1998-2011 with information on the patients’ ages available, 82% involved at least one person younger than 20 years old.

Reported outbreaks represent the tip of the iceberg. For every outbreak and every illness reported, many others occur, and most illnesses are not part of recognized outbreaks.

Are there more outbreaks related to raw milk in states where it is legal to sell?

Yes. States that allow the legal sale of raw milk for human consumption have more raw milk-related outbreaks of illness than states that do not allow raw milk to be sold legally.

For more information about outbreaks related to raw milk, see the main findings of "Nonpasteurized Dairy Products, Disease Outbreaks, and State Laws—United States, 1993-2006."

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/nonpasteurized-outbreaks.html

[Major Nikon]

50. It doesn't disprove my statement

You should read both more closely.

[du_grad]

60. I have read both closely

Some places do not ban raw milk. There are guidelines for people selling raw milk. Yes, I get that.

However, raw milk can and does cause outbreaks in states that allow raw milk to be sold.

Why go back to pre-Pasteurization? It's like gambling with your guts.

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/nonpasteurized-outbreaks.html

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/nonpasteurized-outbreaks-maps.html

[Major Nikon]

62. So where's the contradiction?

If you want to claim I posted something is false, then please be more specific. Posting links and claiming 'there it is' doesn't help.

The original CDC paper you linked to is complete shit. Speaking of contradictions, here's what it claims:

Probably no more than 1% of the milk consumed in the United States is raw, yet more outbreaks were caused by raw milk than by pasteurized milk.

Now compare this to the CDC's own survey which determined the exposure rate to raw milk is 3% (page 14).
http://www.cdc.gov/foodnet/surveys/FNExpAtl03022011.pdf

Keep in mind this was a survey done in 2007, and the popularity of raw milk has increased since then. The CDC also includes data from unregulated sources of raw milk, which provides further evidence that their risk analysis is complete shit.

Why go back to pre-Pasteurization? It's like gambling with your guts.

Why eat sushi? It's like gambling with your guts. Why eat raw oysters? It's like gambling with your guts. Why eat packaged lunch meat? It's like gambling with your guts. All foods have risks. Why eat anything? It's like gambling with your guts.

The question as to whether raw milk is safe or not depends on the probability one has to dying or getting sick. When regulated raw milk is safer than packaged lunch meat or dozens of other things, it's pretty hard to make the case that anyone is gambling with anything.

[du_grad]

64. Why is this getting you so upset?

I don't eat sushi, because of the risk of getting fish tapeworm (D. latum). I don't eat raw oysters because of the risk of Hepatitis. I rarely eat packaged lunch meat - maybe once a year.

Are you a raw milk producer?

[Major Nikon]

67. I'm more amused

Claiming I'm upset is rather childish (and amusing).

I don't eat sushi, because of the risk of getting fish tapeworm (D. latum). I don't eat raw oysters because of the risk of Hepatitis. I rarely eat packaged lunch meat - maybe once a year.

Then don't drink raw milk or eat cheese made from it. Choice is a wonderful thing.

If you ever go to France, be sure not eat soft serve cheese of which almost all is made from raw milk and is far superior to virtually anything you'll ever likely find in the states (unless it's also made from raw milk).

Are you a raw milk producer?

I was raised on a farm and drank raw milk just about every day, but no longer. I'm more curious as to why you'd ask other than it seems any resemblance to a substantive argument seems to have run out and all you appear to have left is childish allegations.

Just sayin'

[Drahthaardogs]

25. IF you lived in Europe, you would likely have some resistance to listeria.

It is our over processed food chain that makes us vulnerable to listeria. I grew up eating raw milk cheese that was home made from goats in the Italian tradition. Listeria has nothing to do with refrigeration. It is carried by the animal itself. I make my own salumi and I am well versed in food pathogens and the FDA requirements.

[Warpy]

36. Goat milk is a bit different

You need to consider how milk is produced in the US. For one thing, cows are given BHG which increases their milk production but also makes them extremely prone to mastitis, meaning a fairly hefty bacteria load in unpasteurized milk.

Goat dairy farms are generally much smaller operations where the animals are milked by hand, the milk immediately chilled. The animals are checked frequently for brucellosis (the main pathogen) and are not fed hormones to increase production while making them prone to mastitis.

I've been lactose intolerant since I was five, so milk makes only rare appearances in my home. I do love to make goat milk kefir with strawberries in season. Otherwise, I consider milk horrible stuff and avoid it.

[Drahthaardogs]

37. It does not matter. Unless you eat raw milk or cheese you are not exposed.

Listeria is ubiquitous in animals. It is carried by rodents and spread through contact with their wastes. Thus grain can be a source of infection. Modern requirements of pasteurization eliminate it. I grew up eating raw cheese, thus I have some resistance. Our food supply is too sanitized in some ways.

i have been around a lot of goat diaries and I have never seen one where the milking was all done by hand.

[Warpy]

45. The ones I've gone to are very small operations

Most people with listeria don't know they've got it, it's just another intestinal illness and they recover quickly. Listeria is a problem mostly in immunosuppressed people, the very young, and the very old.

[du_grad]

48. Resistance vs. vulnerability

Not sure you can have resistance per se to Listeria. You can certainly be more vulnerable to infection.

http://www.foodpoisonjournal.com/food-poisoning-resources/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-listeria-but-need-to/#.VQUV6tLF99k

According to the CDC and other public health organizations, individuals at increased risk for being infected and becoming seriously ill with Listeria include the following groups:

Pregnant women: They are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to get listeriosis. About one-third of listeriosis cases happen during pregnancy.
Newborns: Newborns rather than the pregnant women themselves suffer the serious effects of infection in pregnancy.
Persons with weakened immune systems
Persons with cancer, diabetes, or kidney disease
Persons with AIDS: They are almost 300 times more likely to get listeriosis than people with normal immune systems.
Persons who take glucocorticosteroid medications (such as cortisone)
The elderly [11, 20, 21]

http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/

http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/listeria/

It is listed as the third leading cause of death from food poisoning.

At least 90% of people who get Listeria infections are either pregnant women and their newborns, people 65 or older, or people with weakened immune systems.

I am a clinical microbiology technologist with over 35 years of experience. This is not a pathogen we see often, but it is the one you always remember. I have seen three cases of meningitis and one of sepsis (organism in the blood stream) during my career. This is not a pathogen to be complacent about.

[Drahthaardogs]

49. Generally speaking, repeated exposures to listeria does develop a sort of resistance to it

at least in mice. I do not know if there has been a formal study,but as a salumi maker, I am always cognizant of the listeria threat. It is believed among those of us who practice the craft that Europeans, especially those around the Mediterranean, are much less vulnerable to listeriosis.

[Major Nikon]

55. Listeria is all around us and it's virtually impossible not to be exposed to it

Factors as to whether or not you get sick or not include the strain involved and how high the pathogen count is. Even pasteurization (cooking) doesn't completely eliminate listeria or any other pathogen. The idea is to get the cell count low enough that it doesn't make you sick.

[Drahthaardogs]

57. I said it was ubiquitous

there is also an adaptive immune response.

[Major Nikon]

59. There's also a certainly level of innate immunity

The same can be said for virtually all bacterial pathogens. The question is how much and to what level of exposure is such immunity effective.

[du_grad]

58. Pasteurization and cooking are two different things.

Safe cooking temperatures that destroy pathogens:

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html

Scroll down for comments on Pasteurization:

http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/Disinfection_Sterilization/10_0MiscAgents.html

To destroy bacterial spores, autoclaving is necessary. Scroll down to steam sterilization.

http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/Disinfection_Sterilization/13_0Sterilization.html

The idea is NOT to get the cell count low - the idea in all cases is to destroy pathogenic bacteria. Shigella sonnei/flexneri only need ten bacterial cells to cause dysentery. It's one of the lowest pathogen counts there is. A drop on the head of a pin could contains millions. Certain counts of nonpathogens are allowed in milk. Generally, anything above 140 degrees F (for varying lengths of time) destroys pathogenic bacteria.

I have been a clinical microbiology technologist for 35+ years.

[Major Nikon]

61. Food + Heat = Cooking

If you are what you claim, you'd understand the concept of thermoduric bacterium, many of which are pathogenic. You'd also understand that pasteurization and sterilization are two different things and that pasteurization is no guarantee of the elimination of pathogenic bacteria.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC203888/

Personally I have no regard for people who claim authority anonymously on the internet. Anyone can be anything. Personally I have a red phone to the almighty, which I'm pretty sure trumps all claims to authority anywhere unless you ARE god, and if you were there would be no need for us to communicate this way.

Just sayin'

[du_grad]

63. I am in clinical microbiology

Environmental microbiology is a whole different ball game. I work in a hospital, not a dairy. I report out culture results to physicians. I do not perform plate counts for dairies. The term "thermoduric" is not a term used in medical microbiology. I researched it and it pertains to bacteria not destroyed by Pasteurization, many of which are spore formers.

The date on the article you cited is 1987. I have no idea whether Pasteurization is still performed under those criteria.

I do know that spore formers are only destroyed by autoclaving at high pressure by heat using steam. We have an autoclave in our laboratory. At a former job we made a lot of our own media and had to autoclave it, cool, and pour the plates.

[Major Nikon]

65. The fact that you use processes well over and above what's required for pasteurization...

should be telling you something.

If you don't understand something, google is your friend.
http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/the-heatresisting-bacteria-26449304.html

Just sayin'

[du_grad]

66. Just sayin' what? nt

[Major Nikon]

68. I find those who feign illiteracy quite amusing

Please continue.

[du_grad]

56. In other words, you have anecdotal evidence only

As a microbiologist for 35 years in a clinical setting, this sounds like some sort of stuff sausage makers tell each other while drinking a beer.

If you could provide me with scientific evidence of this (journal article, etc.) then I might take your statement seriously. Sorry .

[SheilaT]

19. I once read that in the 19th century lots of people died from

stomach cancer because of improperly canned foods, meaning commercially canned.

I'm reminded a bit of the story of the doctor who, in the early 20th century, was showing his medical students a cadaver with lung cancer, admonishing them to look closely, because they weren't very likely to see another case of lung cancer in their careers. But then, as smoking became popular, medical students got to see lung cancer all the time.

What we die of changes as various circumstances change.

[csziggy]

20. No - my entire family almost died from bad eggs

Easter eggs, hardboiled, decorated, hidden then found. Mom thought they would be safe and made egg salad. I was too young to remember and my baby sister was too little to eat any, but we all got so sick Mom called a friend to come get the baby and asked her to check to see if we were still alive in a few hours.

She never made egg salad again and I don't remember her making hardboiled or deviled eggs either.

[ReRe]

4. I wonder if that hospital...

... used Blue Bell ice cream? Last time I was in the hospital, I got "no-sugar-added" Blue Bell ice cream (as I am Type-II.) Started buying it after I got home. Kroger came out with their own no-sugar-added ice cream, so I don't buy Blue Bell anymore.

[chervilant]

22. The Kroger brand of no-sugar-added butter pecan

is delish, but I quit buying it in protest when they shrank the container and then raised the price. I wonder if they've come down some on the price...

[ReRe]

24. Price at my Kroger goes up and down...

... every other week or so. My fav is plain ole chocolate.

[chervilant]

29. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Nothing "plain ole" about chocolate!!!

[ReRe]

34. Don't get me started....

.... now I need to go on a search around the house for chocolate.

[underpants]

7. Right wing family operation- they have announced a recall

www.bluebell.com

[Orrex]

10. It's a rocky road we travel down

[El Supremo]

13. Dreyer's? n/m

[Laffy Kat]

18. I see what you did there. nt

[Princess Turandot]

38. But only on Sundae nt

[juxtaposed]

14. blue bell, such a nice sounding product, so wholesome, the song sounds good too

takes the supermarkets by storm. It's from TEXAS, nothing wholesome about it....

[blkmusclmachine]

21. "Free Market."

[man4allcats]

26. Blue Bell is over-rated and definitely over-priced.

I rarely buy it anymore though I didn't know it was a red company until reading it in this thread. Their Homemade Vanilla flavor used to be one of the best on the market, but it now has stiff competition from the grocery chain HEB in HEB's 1905 Vanilla. I'm not supposed to eat either one anymore (Type II), but when I succumb I buy the HEB brand. It's just as good and about a buck and a half cheaper.

[Major Nikon]

53. I rarely eat ice cream, but when I do I make it myself

Blue Bell is not top notch ice cream, so for me it's definitely not worth it at any price. Ice cream that is top notch is way overpriced. Most ice cream like Blue Bell is simply whipped with air to make it softer instead of using quality ingredients in the right proportions. You also wind up paying more for what is essentially less product for this reason.

[LeftyMom]

28. Why was a hospital feeding patients ice cream?

You're sick, here's some unhealthy crap!

[Ex Lurker]

32. Some patients in the hospital need to gain weight

I wonder if food inspection is one of the state services that has fallen victim to Kansas's budget cuts.

[LeftyMom]

35. Yes, and there are plenty of high calorie foods that are better for a person,

and few that are worse.

On top of that it's relatively expensive and difficult to store and transport within the building. An odd thing to be serving all around.

[mainer]

39. Calories and fat makes sense for cancer patients

And let's not forget the protein. Ice cream isn't that bad, except for the sugar.

[crim son]

69. Even sick people deserve an indulgence now and then, I'm thinking. n/t

[Vinca]

40. Texas: "We don't need no stinkin' regulations."

[Jamastiene]

41. Damn! Death by ice cream.

It hurts to think ice cream can kill you, but in this case, it did. So sad.

[roody]

46. Ben and Jerrys is the best.