SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Several environmental samples from a Big Olaf ice cream processing facility tested positive for listeria.
Nine of the 100 environmental samples collected by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services tested positive with one sample’s results still pending. They are still waiting on results from product sampling. They said they expect that within the next few days.
All Big Olaf ice cream products were recalled by the FDA. The products were sold at Florida retailers and one location in Fredericksburg, Ohio.
The FDACS issued a stop use order of processing equipment where listeria was found. It effectively shuts down all the processing facilities, according to the FDACS. Though the store already did that yesterday after they issued a voluntary recall.
Big Olaf could be a potential source of the ongoing Listeria outbreak, a recall release from the FDA said.
The FDA notified Big Olaf of an outbreak investigation by the Florida Department of Health and Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services on July 1. The company stopped the production and distribution of their ice cream that.
No complaints have been filed against Big Olaf or any of it’s retailers to the Florida Department of Health as of July 1.
The FDA said Big Olaf is cooperating completely. Anyone with Big Olaf ice cream is advised to throw it away and clean any utensil or container it may have touched.
The CDC reported 23 people from 10 states were infected with listeria as of July 8.
Two lawsuits have already been filed against the creamery, one for the death of an Illinois woman and one from a couple who said they lost their unborn child because of the listeria infection.
For more information about the recall, call 941-365-7483.
