Firm to Resume Production of Ice Cream Line
State food and agriculture investigators said Monday that glass could not have entered Lady Lee ice cream during the manufacturing process, and officials with Lucky Stores Inc. announced they will resume production of the frozen desserts at their Buena Park factory.
The grocery chain, which had recalled its ice cream products from 463 Lucky and Gemco supermarkets in California, Nevada and Arizona over the weekend and halted production after glass fragments were found in some containers, is “greatly relieved” by the finding, said spokeswoman Judy Decker.
“This means that the (contamination) could not have originated at the manufacturing end. . . . We intend to resume making Lady Lee ice cream as soon as possible,” she added.
Company officials decline to speculate on the source of the contamination, other than to rule out the possibility of tampering during manufacturing.
On Saturday, the grocery chain announced the recall of its Lady Lee brand and generic ice cream, ice milk and sherbet after consumers reported finding glass shards in containers sold in Oakland, Modesto, Sacramento, Bakersfield and Phoenix.
The company had advised customers to return any of the products to Lucky or Gemco stores, which both sell the private-label brand. State and company officials reported, however, that no one discovering the glass had suffered serious injuries.
Subsequently, a team of investigators with the state Department of Food and Agriculture made two inspections of the company’s Buena Park plant. On Monday they announced that glass could not have accidentally entered the ice cream during production and said the plant was “designed specifically to protect the product from adulteration,” according to state food and agriculture spokeswoman Jan Wessell.
The state Department of Health Services and the federal Food and Drug Administration assisted in the investigation, Wessell added.
Officials of Lucky Stores, based in Dublin, Calif., have not yet decided what to do with the thousands of containers of ice cream that were recalled, Decker said. A Buena Park police probe of the incidents is continuing, and Decker said the company has asked the FBI to investigate.
