Blue Bell ice cream pleads guilty in contaminated dairy products case

Blue Bell Creameries agreed to pay more than $19 million in fines, according to the Department of Justice.(Orlin Wagner/AP)

Blue Bell Creameries pleaded guilty to shipping contaminated ice cream linked to an outbreak of listeria five years ago, and the company’s ex-president was charged with conspiring to create cover for the dairy maker, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

The central Texas dessert maker agreed to pay $19.4 million in fines in the case, the second largest settlement in a food-safety case ever, the Justice Department said.

When state officials alerted Blue Bell that some of its products tested positive in 2015, the dairy company failed to inform consumers about possible contamination, prosecutors said.

Paul Kruse, the former president of the company, was accused of directing employees to deceive customers and hide the positive tests. Kruse was charged with seven felony counts.

Kruse’s lawyer, Chris Flood, said that Blue Bell employees “did the best they could with the information they had at the time," and that Kruse is innocent, according to The Associated Press.

Blue Bell said it has since shut down and reopened its factory with new policies requiring safety tests for all ice cream prior to delivery.

“We learned hard lessons and turned them into determination to make the safest, most delicious ice cream available,” the company said in a statement.