A big recall of chocolate chip cookie dough has hit ice cream suppliers all over the country and now it’s hit diet bars, too.
So far, cookie dough ice cream products made by Blue Bell, Publix grocery stores and smaller companies, as well as one flavor of Nutrisystem meal replacement bars, have been affected.
No one’s been reported sick, and Listeria bacteria have not been found in any of the cookie dough recalled this month. The recall was prompted by an incident in September, when Texas-based Blue Bell ice cream found evidence of Listeria in some products that had used cookie dough supplied by Aspen Hills.
Aspen Hills and Blue Bell never agreed on where the listeria came from, but the cookie dough supplier started an investigation of its own processes, a spokesman said.
A spokesman who refused to be identified said Listeria had been found in the Aspen Hills facility. He declined to explain where it was found.
“We found some instances where we weren’t following our own procedures,” Jon Austin, a spokesman for Aspen Hills, told NBC News. He said Listeria has not been found in the product, but declined to explain anything about the discovery of Listeria bacteria in the production facility.
