Today was our day to drive back to San Antonio, but we had time to try for the Blue Bell Creameries Factory Tour. After all, yesterday at the Ticket Info Desk told us the tour would resume today.
Made it to the Blue Bell Creameries when they opened at 9 am, parked the truck, walked up to the Tour Entrance and were greeted with the "No Tours Today" sign again. Thinking they had forgotten to take the sign down from yesterday, we went in and asked. We were told they were notified at 5 pm the evening before that the factory was being shut down and everything taken off line. This is so they could sterilize and clean to get rid of the Listeria. What?? We just ate the ice cream yesterday at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Parlor, and the day before at R Place restaurant. Weeks ago, we had heard about the Listeria and mistakenly assumed it had been taken care of. Not so.
After all these weeks, Blue Bell Creameries finally recalled all their products off the shelves, and cleaned out their factory. Now hundreds of people are without jobs and there is no Blue Bell Ice Cream to be found anywhere. It apparently will take months for Blue Bell to completely rid the bacteria from their equipment and factories. All vendors who sold the ice cream also have to sterilize (with bleach solution) their freezers. Sigh.
We headed back to the 5th wheel, hooked up, and headed back to San Antonio. We had a wonderful, educational weekend. Found out there's lots more to see and do in that area, so we'll be going back at some point in the future.
All for today.
A stunning wildflower meadow on our summit hike at Mt. Revelstoke, B.C. - Friday, August 2, 2024
A stunning wildflower meadow on our summit hike at Mt. Revelstoke, B.C. - Friday, August 2, 2024
Thank goodness you did not suffer any ill affects from the ice cream!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter works at a dairy and she worries a lot about the possibility of contamination and recalls. That could put a small business out of business!
It remains to be seen if I suffered any ill effects from the ice cream...I had some kind of flu or food poisoning last weekend, but it could have been from IHOP or it could have been the flu. Don't know, but I'm over it now!
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