A north central Iowa company is voluntarily recalling the cookie dough it sold to a Texas ice cream company, over listeria concerns.
Aspen Hills is located in Garner, Iowa. It makes cookie dough in huge batches, up to 180,000 pounds a day. According to the company’s website, the freezer at the facility in Garner can store 15 semi-loads of cookie dough.
Some of that product is packaged into containers and sold in fundraisers by school clubs and other groups. The rest is sold to food companies, like the Texas ice cream maker Blue Bell. A spokesman for the Iowa company says no illnesses have been linked to their cookie dough and none of the product has tested positive for listeria. The voluntary recall is a precaution, though, after Aspen Hills officials reviewed production procedures and discovered lapses in documentation and workers’ uniforms.
Blue Bell recalled its cookie dough ice cream last month, too, over listeria concerns linked to Aspen Hills cookie dough, but no illnesses were reported. Blue Bell ice cream is sold in the south. Earlier this year, Blue Bell stopped all production and recalled its ice cream after illnesses caused by listeria were linked to its ice cream.