A minimum of two circumstances of listeria have been linked to ice cream within the Baltimore metro space, prompting well being and security issues.
Listeria is a bacterium that may contaminate meals and trigger critical, typically deadly infections, significantly in pregnant ladies, newborns, the aged and people with weakened immune techniques, based on the Meals and Drug Administration.
This month, a Baltimore County lady filed a lawsuit in opposition to a Pikesville grocery store and out-of-state ice cream producers that she says bought merchandise contaminated with listeria and led to the dying of her new child child in 2023, based on a grievance filed in Baltimore County Circuit Courtroom. She is looking for as much as $30 million in damages.
Moreover, in Might 2024, the FDA found listeria contamination throughout an inspection of ice cream producer Completely Cool Inc.’s Owings Mills facility. This led to a nationwide recall of over 60 ice cream merchandise from manufacturers together with Pleasant’s, Hershey’s Creamery Corp. and Jeni’s. In March 2025, the FDA requested a everlasting injunction in opposition to the corporate, which filed for chapter after listeria was detected at one in all its manufacturing strains throughout an unannounced inspection.
Final yr, the Maryland Division of Well being issued a client advisory for Boar’s Head ready-to-eat liverwurst and different deli meat merchandise on account of doable listeria contamination.
Beneath is info on listeria, learn how to stop an an infection, an infection indicators and signs and remedy.
What’s listeria?
Listeria is a probably harmful bacterium that may contaminate varied meals and trigger critical sickness, particularly in weak teams like younger kids, older adults and people with weakened immune techniques. Whereas uncommon, infections might be extreme however are largely preventable with correct meals security practices, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
“The thing about the bacteria that makes it problematic in terms of outbreaks is that it can grow at relatively cold temperatures as low as two degrees Celsius,” mentioned Shmuel Shoham, a professor of medical medication within the Division of Infectious Illnesses on the Johns Hopkins College College of Drugs. “So typically the micro organism can survive regardless of refrigeration, after which additionally the micro organism can kind what are known as biofilms, which permit it to outlive within the setting.
“So you can have a situation where, unless meticulous hygiene measures are taken at a place where food is prepared, then it can get into the food and then survive in refrigeration.”
Right here’s what the CDC says about listeria and learn how to scale back your threat of getting sick.
Dangerous meals
- Gentle cheeses
- Sizzling canines
- Chilly cuts
- Unpasteurized milk merchandise
- Pre-cut vegetables and fruit
- Uncooked shellfish and seafood
Shoham mentioned there’s one kind of meals that appears to have a “predilection” for contamination and an infection: mushy cheeses.
“Oftentimes, soft cheeses are made in ma-pa types of facilities and they may not have the ability to have the hygiene that a big industrial operation has,” Shoham mentioned.
Signs of listeria an infection
- Fever
- Muscle aches
- Nausea
- Diarrhea
Based on Shoham, most individuals who get a listeria an infection get gastroenteritis.
“Most of those go undiagnosed because we don’t typically test for listeria from stool, and they get better without specific therapy,” Shoham mentioned.
“Pregnant women, highly immunocompromised people, people of big streams of age, they can get both gastroenteritis, but they can also get something more severe, either a cholesterol infection or rarely but dangerously essential nervous system infection.”
Highest threat of an infection
- Pregnant ladies
- Newborns
- Adults aged 65 or older
- Individuals with weakened immune techniques
“The people at highest risk for listeria infection are going to be people that are pregnant, people that are immune-compromised, extremes of age, very young and very old,” Shoham mentioned. “So for those people, particularly pregnant women, we tell them all kinds of foods not to eat. The reason we’re telling them that one of them is so that they do not get listeria. And if a pregnant woman gets listeria, she may get a bloodstream infection with it, and then, then they put the health of the unborn baby in danger.”
Therapy
- Fluids, particularly for signs of diarrhea, to forestall dehydration
- Antibiotics
- Erythromycin, or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for these with penicillin allergy symptoms
Based on Shoham, most individuals won’t want remedy.
“Most people will have a self-limited gastrointestinal syndrome, diarrhea, usually,” Shoham mentioned. “ However, people who are at high risk, those people will typically be treated with amoxicillin or another drug called trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole or bactrim.”
Prevention
- Know the meals prone to be contaminated
- Select safer meals choices
- Clear, separate, after which cook dinner
- Keep updated on foodborne outbreaks and meals remembers
“If you thoroughly cook animal-sourced food, if you thoroughly wash raw vegetables, if you avoid unpasteurized milk, especially unpasteurized soft cheeses,” Shoham mentioned. “After which additionally smoked seafood, meat spreads, pates, chilly cuts, sizzling canines … these can all be [contaminated] significantly in the event that they’re undercooked.
“Occasionally, there is an outbreak that happens with a specific kind of food. Once the CDC or the health authorities are on top of it, they tell you not to have that. So, occasionally, we’ll find out a certain ice cream brand or other food is associated with listeria. So those are the ways to avoid it.”
Have a information tip? Contact Todd Karpovich at tkarpovich@baltsun.com or on X as @ToddKarpovich.
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