Blue Bell claims customers should know if ice cream has been tampered with
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/WNRC5OCE3BBTVCXARUOAA3467Q.jpg)
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A video showing a woman opening a container of Blue Bell Creameries ice cream and licking it has raised eyebrows and left people wondering how to tell if their food has been tampered with before buying it.
ORIGINAL VIDEO FROM TWITTER
After the video surfaced, Blue Bell issued this statement:
"We want to thank our consumers for alerting us to the incident this past weekend of a video posted to social media showing a Blue Bell item being tampered with. We take this issue very seriously and are currently working with law enforcement, retail partners and social media platforms. This type of incident will not be tolerated.
Food safety is a top priority, and we work hard to provide a safe product and maintain the highest level of confidence from our consumers.
During production, our half gallons are flipped upside down and sent to a hardening room where the ice cream freezes to the lid creating a natural seal. The lids are frozen tightly to the carton. Any attempt at opening the product should be noticeable.
We will continue to monitor this situation.”
According to KTRE in Lufkin, Texas, police now believe the incident may have happened at a Walmart in Lufkin. Police also believe they have identified the woman in the video.
RELATED: Viral ice cream-licking video likely occurred in Lufkin store; suspect identified
WAFB reached out to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) about what regulations the state has in place regarding food products being sealed; according to the department, “food products must be sealed in a manner that prevents contamination from entering.” This means as long as Blue Bell’s containers prevent contamination of the product, it passes muster with the state.
Blue Bell’s containers, unlike some, do not have a plastic seal. As noted in the above statement, the ice cream containers have a natural seal.
That begs the question though, could you tell if your ice cream has been contaminated? We put shoppers to the test. See the results in the above video.
Copyright 2019 WAFB. All rights reserved.