Listeria Scare Continues: Jeni's Ice Cream Recalls All Products

The listeria outbreaks continue to worsen. Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, the James Beard award-winning mini ice cream chain based in Columbus, Ohio, has announced that it will be temporarily closing all scoop shops and pulling all ice cream products off the shelves after possible listeria contamination.

This news comes on the heels of Blue Bell ice cream recalling all of its products due to a similar listeria scare. Jeni's said that the decision to pull the ice cream was the result of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture discovering the listeria bacteria in a randomly collected sample.  The scoop shops will not reopen for another few days, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

"We have decided to recall everything currently on retailer shelves, and we are closing our scoop shops until we are 100% confident every item we sell is safe," says John Lowe, CEO of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. "We have called in experts to help us find the root cause. We will be working with our suppliers to determine if the bacteria was introduced by one of the ingredients we use. We will not reopen the kitchen until we can ensure the safety of our customers."

Besides the scoop shops located in Columbus, Cleveland, Nashville, Chicago, Atlanta, Charleston, and Los Angeles, Jeni's also distributes ice cream in retail stores all over the nation.  Customers who have purchased the products are encouraged to dispose of them or return them to stores for a full refund.