Listeria ice cream recall: Friendly’s and Hershey ice cream products among brands recalled due to bacterial contamination concerns

CNN
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Consumers looking to cool off this summer are advised to avoid popular ice cream products from brands including Friendly’s, Hershey’s and Chipwich due to possible Listeria contamination, according to a recall announced Monday.

Totally Cool, Inc has recalled ice cream products from more than a dozen brands distributed in retail stores and delivered to homes nationwide, according to a recall notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration website the United States.

The Maryland-based company has stopped production and distribution of ice cream and recalled the products after FDA sampling revealed potential traces of Listeria monocytogenes.

No cases of illness have been reported so far, the company said.

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacteria that can cause listeriosis, the third leading cause of foodborne illness death in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in pregnant women, children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems, while healthy people may experience short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, according to the recall notice.

The infection may present with fever, muscle aches, excessive fatigue, severe headache, nausea, stomach upset, or diarrhea. Symptoms usually begin within two weeks of eating contaminated food, but can appear as early as the same day or up to 10 weeks later, according to the CDC.

Earlier this year, the CDC investigated a deadly Listeria outbreak linked to queso fresco and cotija cheese that resulted in 23 hospitalizations and two deaths.

The CDC urges people who think they have consumed products contaminated with Listeria to contact a health care provider.