Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams recalls all products in US due to possible Listeria contamination

US-based ice cream maker Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has announced the voluntary recall of close to 265 tons of ice cream due to apossible Listeria contamination.

The company will be recalling all its ice creams, sorbets and ice cream sandwiches, and will also temporarily close all of its scoop shops, resulting in a loss of an estimated $2.5m to the company.

The company also said that a vast majority of the recalled products will be sent to an anaerobic digester, which will convert the dairy into electricity and natural soil fertilizer.

Jeni’s recall comes a few days after Blue Bell Creameries had to recall all of its products after finding the listeria bacteria in some half-gallon containers of its chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream manufactured between the dates of March 17 and March 27, 2015.

A total of ten people were found to be infected with listeriosis related to the Blue Bell outbreak in Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas out of which three people died in Kansas.

Jeni’s said in a statement: "For the record, the lot number of the product that began this inquiry is 5-025-201, and is stamped on the bottom of the containers.

"The product is a pint of Dark Chocolate ice cream. We have been reluctant to release the specific flavor and batch number of the pint only because we did not want people to wrongly assume Listeria is not present in other flavors and batches."

The company said that while all of its buckets and a majority of pints tested negative for the bacteria, a pint of The Buckeye State ice cream was said to be contaminated.

The Jewish Voice said that the US Food and Drug Administration said it did not suspect a link between the listeria contamination in Blue Bell and Jeni’s products and that the organisation will continue with its investigation of both the cases.