Ice cream made at the Berkey Creamery between May 16, 2012 and Aug 11. 2012 may not have been as smooth as usual.
The Creamery is recalling ice cream made between those dates because of three reports of small plastic foreign substances found in the ice cream.
Creamery Manager Tom Palchak said no reports of injury or illness have been reported, but to ensure public safety they decided as a staff to air on the side of caution and recall the ice cream.
“The number one concern we have is the safety of the consuming public,” Palchak said. “We had to look at that at the absolute first.”
According the press release on Penn State Live, the Creamery insists customers who have ice cream with the BEST IF USED BY date between Feb. 10, 2013 and Aug. 11, 2013 should return the ice cream for a full refund or exchange.
Palchak said he believes most of the ice cream that has been recalled has already been eaten, but they wanted to be cautious and call the remaining ice cream back. None of the recalled ice cream is currently being sold in stores.
In addition to the recall, Palchak said the Creamery will purchase additional food safety packaging equipment which will cost around half a million dollars. The funds for the equipment will come from a reserve fund and will not come from student scholarship or internship money, he said. He also said this process will be as quick as possible to avoid further problems.
University Spokeswoman Lisa Powers wrote in an email that the Creamery has a long history of high quality ice cream and in this case, there was a quick response to action.
“The action of one or several troubled individuals, while alarming and unexplainable, should not deter people from enjoying Creamery ice cream,” she wrote.
Powers wrote that the Creamery is taking all necessary actions to provide the utmost safety of their customers.
“New surveillance and safety procedures are in place and soon we will move to a tamper-resistant package,” Powers explained.
University Police have been investigating isolated reports and there are also three separate independent investigations, Palchak said.
University Police Chief Tyrone Parham said there is no specific information available now because the investigation is ongoing.
To email reporter: saj5180@psu.edu
