The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating an outbreak of listeria infections linked to a Sarasota-based brand of ice cream, the agency said Saturday.
Big Olaf Creamery is voluntarily contacting retailers to recommend against selling its ice cream products until further notice. The CDC said consumers who have the ice cream at home should throw it away and clean areas, containers and utensils that may have touched the product.
The ice cream brand is based in Sarasota and is only sold in Florida.
Big Olaf Creamery products are sold to ice cream shops, senior homes, restaurants, fairs and supermarkets. Its ice cream is made at a local creamery near Sarasota's Amish Village of PineCraft.
The CDC reported 23 illnesses, 22 hospitalizations and one death across 10 states from the food safety alert.
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Five of the patients were pregnant and one lost her baby during the illness.
Pregnant people, adults 65 years or older, and people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of serious illness.
Nearly all who became sick lived in or traveled to Florida in the month preceding infection, the agency said in an earlier press release. Twelve of the infected lived in Florida.
Interviews with 17 infected people found that 14 had reported eating ice cream and six remembered eating Big Olaf Creamery brand ice cream or eating ice cream at locations that might have been supplied by Big Olaf Creamery.
This story was originally published by WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.
