Texas ice cream maker Blue Bell wants precautions eased
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In thus April 23, 2015 file photo, flags flutter in the breeze outside of the Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham, Texas. A supplier of cookie dough that Blue Bell Creameries is blaming for a possible listeria contamination of some of its ice cream products says its product tested negative for the pathogen before being sent to the Texas-based company. In a statement Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016, Iowa-based Aspen Hills said the "positive listeria results were obtained by Blue Bell only after our product had been in their control for almost two months." (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News via AP, File)
The Houston Chronicle is reporting Texas-based ice cream maker Blue Bell wants federal regulators to ease precautions in place since a deadly listeria outbreak and allow the company to return to more normal procedures followed by its competitors.
The newspaper (http://bit.ly/2idy1NY), reviewing documents obtained under a federal open records request, says Blue Bell has been working for months with a laboratory to develop tests to meet federal Food and Drug Administration requirements, prevent future outbreaks and help Blue Bell improve its economics.
An attorney for Blue Bell, Joseph Levitt, has written the FDA that it's time for the company "to transition to the industry norm."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Blue Bell had to shut its flagship Brenham creamery for several months after last year's recall was linked to 10 listeria cases in four states, including three deaths in Kansas.