Blue Bell Update — And It's Not Good News

This updates my post on the return of Blue Bell ice cream to the market.

Suggested new Blue Bell slogan

My thanks to regular reader George ('B'-but-not-Bush) who points in comments to an article from last Sunday's Houston Chronicle, Inside Blue Bell: Grime and discontent, that indicates a culture of indifference to worker safety and plant cleanliness... or as George put it, in what may or may not be a terrible pun, "the manufacturing culture that existed at the Blue Bell plants." Here's George:

...

My saying I probably would not buy any more Blue Bell products was not based on the likelihood that I or my family might get listeriosis, but on the manufacturing culture that existed at the Blue Bell plants. The Chronicle article gives some graphic descriptions of employee injuries apparently due to failure by management to maintain a safe facility. Providing lots of jobs is a good thing, and Blue Bell did that until the latest crisis, but the working conditions should be safe, which they were not. Indeed, some of the safety features on machines were overridden, and that caused one or more employees to lose parts of fingers.

I simply cannot see supporting a company that operates that way.

[Bolds mine. - SB]

Added to the Houston Press article I offered in the same comment thread, an article George says is lacking in some important details, the total impression is that Blue Bell has more to rectify than just contaminated equipment. For all I know, this may be common in older companies manufacturing dairy products, but even if so, Blue Bell should get its own house in order, the sooner, the better.

AFTERTHOUGHT: whatever you do about the ice cream, please do view the TV ad from a decade or so ago, one of the all‑time best.

Like Asking The Cats HumansWho Gets The Cream Blue Bell

This morning as we dressed for our Labor Day outing, Stella favored me with a wicked grin and flashed me. It is probably illegal in Texas for a mid-sixties-ish woman to look that enticing, but she does, and I, remembering that Blue Bell Ice Cream came back on the market about 2-3 days ago after what seemed an eternity to those of us addicted to it, couldn't help thinking... but not saying aloud... "By the way, Stella, let's remember to stop by a Blue Bell outlet [note: not every store has been favored with a restock yet, and only four flavors are available] and pick up some Homemade Vanilla just before we return home." Instead, I said something equally complimentary and a lot less publicly repeatable, and indeed we did get some Blue Bell on the way home. Mmmmm! It's been a day full of treats!

Those without a steady supply of Blue Bell have to understand: when the company calls their vanilla ice cream "Homemade," I don't question their choice of word for even a second: what they sell bears a respectable resemblance to the ice cream both sets of grandparents hand-cranked when I was a tot... and little else on the market here evokes that memory the way Blue Bell does. Their traditional flavors do not assault the ice cream lover with too much sugar or overly intense flavorings; if you buy Dutch Chocolate or Homemade Vanilla or plain old Strawberry, the flavors are about 99 percent like those you once cranked, and the Strawberry contains small chunks of, um, strawberry, the real thing.

Welcome back, Blue Bell. Don't ever go away again!