July 18, 2005 If you brought home Cold Stone Creamery ice cream containing "cake batter," it may contain salmonella bacteria, said Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik.
"Salmonella can kill," he said.
Salmonella can be especially toxic to elderly people, pregnant women, infants, and people with weakened immune systems.
The manager at Cold Stone Creamery's Red Hook store, who declined to give her name, said the store removed all "cake batter" products from the shelves two weeks ago when the company first learned of the problem.
She could not say whether the company would give a refund to anyone who returned a carton of ice cream with "cake batter" in it.
However, Rutnik said it would be in the "interests of customer service" for the store to give people their money back.
Cold Stone Creamery, a national chain, also operates a store at Havensight.
Rutnik said that his department learned of the recall from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after multiple instances in which people became sick with salmonella after eating Cold Stone Creamery ice cream containing "cake batter."
Salmonella typhimurium is the specific type of bacteria that causes this problem.
Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
Rutnik also announced a recall of Nabisco's 4.8-ounce boxes of 100-calorie packs of Oreo Thin Crisps Bake Chocolate Wafer Snacks. They carry the "Best Used By" date of Dec. 4.
The FDA alert issued by DLCA indicates that some of the bags instead contain Chips Ahoy. They are made with milk, which is not indicated on the outside. However, milk is indicated on the individual packages.
This could pose a problem for people allergic to milk, but no illnesses or allergic reactions have been reported.
Rutnik said that this product is sold in stores across the Virgin Islands.
The FDA also recalled Lappert's Banana Caramel Chocolate Chip Ice Cream because it "has the potential" to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism that can cause a serious and sometimes fatal infection in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems.
Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
There were no reports of illness from this variety of Lappert's ice cream.
Rutnik said he did not know if any of the territory's stores sold Lappert's ice cream.
He said that Licensing staff members on St. Thomas and St. Croix went out Monday to check store shelves for the recalled products. He said a staff shortage meant that St. John stores could not be checked until Tuesday.
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