Snoqualmie Ice Cream, which provides ice-cream base to some of Seattle’s most popular ice cream shops, has issued a recall of all its products after the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes was found in its production facility and, subsequently, samples of its vanilla ice cream, reports the Puget Sound Business Journal.
If you have any Snoqualmie ice cream at home, check the code on the bottom before you eat it; the company says the date codes included “either end in ‘4,’ e.g. XXX4 (pints and cups) or are listed by date: January 1, 2014 through December 15, 2014 (trays & tubs).” And if you want to get ice cream at Molly Moon’s or Full Tilt, you’ll have to wait — both companies get their ice-cream base (the dairy-and-sugar mix before flavors are added) from Snoqualmie, and both have temporarily closed their shops.
Justin Cline, one of the owners of Full Tilt, says all four of their shops have been closed since they were notified about the recall on Sunday. The Columbia City Full Tilt will reopen tomorrow, Cline says; Snoqualmie has lined them up with another dairy to make the base with the same recipe. He’ll reopen the other shops on Friday.
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Full Tilt’s been working hard to pull their ice cream from the long list of restaurants and retail outlets that stock it, but Cline is philosophical about it. “It came at a perfect time,” he says. “It’s kind of slow for ice cream sales right now.” He also has praise for Snoqualmie owner Barry Bettinger for instigating the recall voluntarily, before listeria was found in any products: “I was really proud of how Barry handled it. Just to be extra-overly cautious, he did this voluntary recall.”
Molly Moon’s shops are set to reopen reopen Friday as well. West Seattle’s Husky Deli, which also usually uses Snoqualmie base, has already found another source and is currently scooping.
Bartell Drugs has pulled all its Emerald & Spruce private-label ice cream, which is made by Snoqualmie. The recall also impacts Pink’s Ice Cream, a local wholesaler known for its durian flavor (Full Tilt’s Cline says, “If you’re brave enough, it’s interesting”).