Snoqualmie Ice Cream -- based in Snohomish -- has been voluntarily recalled after bacteria was found at the production facility – and that has forced Molly Moon's to close until Friday and local grocery stores to pull ice cream off the shelves.
- All Snoqualmie ice cream, Snoqualmie gelato, Snoqualmie custard and Snoqualmie sorbet products with dates between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15, 2014
- All Emerald & Spruce ice cream, sold by Bartell Drugs, during the same time period
- All Top Pot Hand Forged ice cream during the same date range
- Pints and cups with date codes that end in "XXX4." That matches the production date range.
Bartell Drugs has pulled Emerald & Spruce ice cream from shelves at all of its 63 locations in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Bartell's staff said Emerald & Spruce ice cream products may returned to the stores for a full refund.
Molly Moon's, which gets its dairy pasteurized at Snoqualmie, will be closed until Friday and is recalling all of its ice cream.
No illnesses have been reported, and the recall is voluntary.
Listeria monocytogenes was found in the Snoqualmie Ice Cream facility during testing by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Additional tests confirm listeria was found in ice cream already packaged and still stored at the factory.
Snoqualmie products were distributed in Arizona, Idaho, California, Oregon and Washington, and may have been further distributed and sold in retail outlets in Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
“It’s devastating,” said Snoqualmie Ice Cream owner, Barry Bettinger. “Very shocked because we take this very seriously.”
Snoqualmie's production facility will remain closed for one to two weeks while the facility is sanitized.
Molly Moon Neitzel said the closure comes during her company’s slowest week of the year. Molly Moon's had already planned for a day and a half closure. Molly Moon’s threw away more than 3-thousand gallons of ice cream, worth more than $25,000.
“We are composting all of the ice cream, because ice cream is compostable, and then we are sanitizing all of our tubs, all of our ice cream machines, all of our utensils and starting fresh,” said Neitzel. Molly Moon’s will return to working with the Snoqualmie facility.
Snoqualmie Ice Cream is sold at Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, Metropolitan Market, Whole Foods, and PCC stores. The product has been pulled off the shelf, or is in the process of being removed. Customers can return pints of ice cream to the store for a refund.
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