A mural of George Floyd is shown in the intersection of 38th St & Chicago Ave on March 31, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Community members continue preparations during the third day in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with multiple counts of murder in the death of George Floyd. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 01: President Donald Trump's lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talks to journalists outside the White House West Wing July 01, 2020 in Washington, DC. Giuliani did an on-camera interview with One America News Network's Chanel Rion before talking to other journalists about Vice President Joe Biden and the news that Russian intelligence may have paid Taliban operatives to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. 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(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict in the Middle East from Cross- Hall of the White House on May 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Israel and Hamas announced that they would agree to a cease-fire, which will take into effect on Friday, following days of fighting that claimed more than 200 lives. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) SAN JOSE, CA - MAY 26: A view of the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light-rail yard where a mass shooting occurred on May 26, 2021 in San Jose, California. A VTA employee opened fire at the yard, with preliminary reports indicating nine people dead including the gunman. (Photo by Philip Pacheco/Getty Images) A healthcare worker prepares to administer a Pfizer/BioNTEch coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine at The Michener Institute, in Toronto, Ontario on December 14, 2020. - Ontario, Canada's most populous province and one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, had 1,940 new cases and 23 deaths on Monday. The province is expected to give its next doses to nursing home workers as a priority, according to media reports. (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 'Never seen levels like this': Union president on airline passenger misconduct Memorial Day weekend will bring rain and cool air for much of the East What to do when food is recalled (CNN) — After a series of recalls, an investigation into safety issues at US ice cream makers forced one manufacturer to cease operations and resulted in three voluntary recalls, the US Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The FDA said that it inspected and obtained samples from 89 ice cream production facilities in 32 states in 2016 and 2017, detecting listeria monocytogenes, which can cause listeriosis, at 19 facilities and one instance of salmonella. The investigation was launched in August 2016 after 16 recalls of ice cream products in the prior three-year period and an outbreak of listeriosis linked to an ice cream maker in 2015 that involved three deaths. “Although many of these facilities were adhering to good manufacturing practices, we did find that some were in violation of the law,” said Frank Yiannas, FDA deputy commissioner for food policy and response. “These results serve as an important reminder to all food facilities distributing products in the US of the importance of complying with rules set forth to mitigate safety issues.” The FDA said the goal was to determine the prevalence of certain types of harmful bacteria and whether ice cream manufacturers were properly implementing food safety programs. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. As a result of the investigation, the FDA said, it suspended the food facility registration of Florida-based Working Cow Homemade in 2018, although the suspension was lifted after the firm stopped making ice cream and switched to distributing products made by other ice cream makers. The company also made two voluntary recalls of its ice cream because of potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes, the FDA said. Pennsylvania-based Nelson’s Creamery recalled one one of its products because of an undeclared amount of soy lecithin, a food additive, the FDA added.<doc-sep>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned 19 ice cream makers that their operations contain harmful bacteria after a national round of inspections following a spate of recalls. The FDA, which inspected 89 establishments in 2016 and 2017, ordered action at six of the locations and recommended voluntary action at 39 where it found "objectionable conditions or practices." In 19 locations, the agency detected the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, including 18 sites where it was found on non-food contact surfaces, according to results released Wednesday. The pathogen causes Listeriosis, a serious infection that kills about 260 people annually, according to the CDC. The FDA also discovered Salmonella in one ice cream production facility. The agency launched the inspections on Aug. 1, 2016, after 16 recalls of ice cream over the span of three years, including an outbreak of listeriosis in 2015. The government said that in selecting places to inspect, it "sought to ensure representation from throughout the country and focused primarily on larger establishments whose product would be expected to reach greater numbers of consumers." Food safety:FDA unveils new plan to ensure safety of food imported to U.S. Food safety:Ice cream recalled due to an undeclared allergen, almond "The results underscore the need for commercial ice cream makers to ensure that they are implementing effective strategies to keep harmful bacteria out of their facilities," the FDA said in a statement. In one case, the FDA suspended operations at a company called Working Cow Homemade for four months. The company then "changed its business model to exclude production and focus on storage and distribution of ice cream made by other manufacturers," the FDA said. The FDA also said its efforts resulted in two voluntary recalls, including one from Working Cow Homemade. The agency is conducting follow-up inspections. Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.<doc-sep>FDA Found Listeria at 21 Percent of Ice Cream Factories, It Says The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on April 24 that it found harmful bacteria in 21 percent of ice cream manufacturers. The FDA found Listeria in 19 of the 89 facilities inspected in 32 states in 2016 and 2017, according to a news release. Salmonella was also found in one of the ice cream factories, said the agency. Listeria can cause listeriosis, which includes symptoms such as fever, aches, confusion, stiff neck, and headaches. It can be fatal in children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems. “Examining the findings by zone, the agency detected Listeria monocytogenes on food contact surfaces at one of the 19 establishments where Listeria monocytogenes had been found, whereas all the other detections of the pathogen involved non-food contact surfaces,” said a report on the FDA website. Frank Yiannas, FDA deputy commissioner for food policy and response, stated that “these activities help the FDA gather data and information necessary to develop prevention-based systems and, when contamination does occur, to respond swiftly to these hazards.” The FDA’s findings resulted in three recalls, he said, adding that ice cream makers were contacted by the agency to make corrections and implement safety plans to prevent bacteria from getting into its supply. These include two voluntary recalls of Working Cow Homemade Inc. ice creams over listeria and a Nelson’s Creamery LLC recall due to undeclared soy lecithin in one product. Working Cow’s food facility registration was also suspended in 2018 before it was lifted in 2019 after the company changed the way it did business. Now, according to the FDA, it will only distribute products made by other manufacturers. “Although many of these facilities were adhering to good manufacturing practices, we did find that some were in violation of the law,” Yiannas added in a statement. The FDA added that its inspections were done to ensure that plants were in compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act. The recent findings show that companies need to comply with the regulations, it said. “Listeria monocytogenes and salmonella are examples of hazards, if identified in a food-safety plan, that a company would be required to minimize with preventive controls and verify that their controls are working,” the FDA report said. Allen Sayler, a former FDA and USDA regulator, told IEG Policy that the findings are not a cause for alarm. “When you are working with raw (food) material … it is not unexpected to find Listeria,” Sayler noted. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 48 million people get sick from foodborne illnesses per year in the United States. That’s about one in six Americans. Of that figure, the agency says, some 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die. Blue Bell halted production in April 2015 after 10 people were hospitalized after consuming Listeria-contaminated ice cream. That month, the company recalled eight million gallons of ice cream and was forced to lay off 1,450 employees, CBS News reported. As of March 2018, Blue Bell products could be found in at least 17 states, according to the CBS report.<doc-sep>It’s often the ones we love who hurt us the most — in this case, the offender being ice cream. The FDA has released a new report detailing that harmful pathogens were found at 21 percent of ice cream production facilities inspected in a recent, yearlong test, initiated following the national, deadly listeria outbreak in 2015. The agency announced on Wednesday that researchers discovered listeria monocytogenes in 19 out of 89 ice cream plants in 32 states, inspected between September 2016 and August 2017. As noted by Politico, the plants inspected account for 16 percent of all American ice cream manufacturers. OVER 165,000 POUNDS OF GROUND BEEF RECALLED AMID E. COLI OUTBREAK Only one of the plants tested had salmonella, as per the findings. The FDA launched the investigation in August 2016, as 16 ice cream products had been recalled since 2013 due to dangerous pathogens, coupled with a deadly listeriosis outbreak – connected to Blue Bell ice cream – that involved three fatalities and sent 10 others to the hospital, Fox 29 and Politico report. When it came time to investigate, FDA officials wanted to inspect “larger establishments whose product would be expected to reach greater numbers of consumers.” “Although many of these facilities were adhering to good manufacturing practices, we did find that some were in violation of the law,” Frank Yiannas, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, said, as per Fox 29. US MEASLES CASES HIT HIGHEST LEVEL IN 25 YEARS, OFFICIALS SAY “These results serve as an important reminder to all food facilities distributing products in the U.S. of the importance of complying with rules set forth to mitigate safety issues,” he added. In the Wednesday report, the FDA clarified that the investigation was not conducted in correlation with rules established by the Food Safety Modernization Act. However, officials acknowledged that their most recent findings “underscore the need” for the development and implementation of stricter food safety plans for related facilities. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Listeria monocytogenes and salmonella are examples of hazards, if identified in a food-safety plan, that a company would be required to minimize with preventive controls and verify that their controls are working,” the researchers concluded.<doc-sep>
Following a series of recalls in prior years, an inspection of ice cream maker facilities across the country in 2016 and 2017 found the presence of harmful bacteria and resulted in multiple other voluntary recalls, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday. The FDA began the inspection in August 2016 after 16 ice cream products were recalled in the three years prior due to the presence of pathogens, and an outbreak of listeriosis linked to an ice cream maker in 2015 that involved three deaths. The FDA said it obtained samples from 89 ice cream production facilities in 32 states from September 2016 to August 2017, choosing "larger establishments whose product would be expected to reach greater numbers of consumers." The facilities inspected account for 16 percent of all ice cream manufacturers in the U.S. The FDA detected listeria monocytogenes, which can cause the serious listeriosis infection, in 19 of the 89 facilities and found salmonella in one of the facilities. The agency detected listeria monocytogenes on food contact surfaces at only one of the 19 facilities, whereas all the other findings of the pathogen were found on non-food contact surfaces. The salmonella-positive sample came from a non-food contact surface, the wheel of a forklift that transported ingredients from a storage area to a production area, according to the FDA. The agency said the goal of the investigation was to gain insights into the prevalence of certain types of harmful bacteria in the manufacturing environment -- and to evaluate each facility's ability to prevent contamination. "Although many of these facilities were adhering to good manufacturing practices, we did find that some were in violation of the law," said Frank Yiannas, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response. As a result of the inspections, the FDA suspended the food facility registration for Working Cow Homemade Inc. in 2018. The suspension was lifted, however, after the firm changed its business model to stop making ice cream and only distribute ice cream products made by other manufacturers. The Florida-based Working Cow Homemade also issued two voluntary recalls of its ice creams due to potential listeria contamination. Pennsylvania-based Nelson's Creamery recalled one of its products due to an undeclared amount of soy lecithin, a food additive, according to the FDA. "These results serve as an important reminder to all food facilities distributing products in the U.S. of the importance of complying with rules set forth to mitigate safety issues," Yiannas said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, listeriosis primarily affects pregnant women, newborns, older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Most people with "invasive" listeriosis require hospital care, and an estimated one in five people with the infection die. Those infected with salmonella typically develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps between 12 and 72 hours after infection, the CDC says. Children are at the highest risk for developing the infection.