Galliker Dairy Co. of Richland Township on Friday issued a voluntary recall of two ice cream products after it was revealed that they could be carrying salmonella-tainted peanuts.The dairy’s Rocky Road Ice Cream and Sundae Nut Cones sold in Pennsylvania and West Virginia were the focus of the recall. The products have code dates of 008-08, 086-08 and 176-08.
Galliker said it issued the recall because the Peanut Corp. of America expanded its recall to include all peanuts and peanut-related products from its Blakely, Ga., plant from January 2007 to present.Mark Duray, chief operating officer at Galliker, stressed that only those two products are affected by the peanut problem.
The rest of the company’s frozen goods containing peanut products are safe to consume.“If there could have been a good time to have this happen, this is probably it,” Duray said. “At least this isn’t ice cream season, so there’s not a lot of it out in stores.”
Duray said the cones are not produced on site. They are made and packaged for Galliker by Garber Ice Cream of Winchester, Va.The rocky road flavor is produced on site, but is packaged only for institutional sales – meaning it won’t be on the shelves at grocery stores.
Duray noted that all of the company’s machinery is sanitized daily so there is no chance of cross contamination.“We have already contacted all of our customers,” Duray said. “We’re retrieving it all and will destroy it.”
Duray said the company will not offer either product until the peanut recall has passed and it again can procure a safe product. In the meantime, he said the dairy will do its best to offer substitutes to the affected customers.Another Pennsylvania dairy, Turkey Hill in Lancaster County, is recalling six flavors because of the salmonella problem.
Turkey Hill is recalling Tin Roof Sundae Premium, Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks Stuff’d, Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks Light Recipe, Nutty Caramel Caribou Frozen Yogurt, Peanut Brittle No Sugar Added Recipe and Peanut Butter Mania Light Recipe.
Peanuts and peanut products can appear in many foods, from egg rolls and ice cream to chili, candy and chocolate.The government has warned consumers to check foods containing peanuts and peanut products against a list of recalled products.
National brands of jarred peanut butter sold directly to consumers and Girl Scout Cookies have been unaffected by the recalls.Amid reports of shoddy sanitation practices, federal health officials opened a criminal investigation Friday into the peanut-processing plant, and President Barack Obama pledged stricter oversight of food safety to prevent breakdowns in inspections.
The government acknowledged earlier Friday that a shipment of peanuts from the Georgia plant to Canada contained a “filthy, putrid or decomposed substance” later identified as metal fragments. The shipment was returned to the U.S. in April, months earlier than reflected in a federal tracking database.
The rejected shipment was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never tested by federal inspectors, according to government records. The computer records show a mid-September date, just weeks before the earliest signs of the outbreak.