Life in plastic may be fantastic if you’re a Barbie girl in the Barbie world. But plastic in ice cream? Not so good. That’s why potential contamination with plastic material has prompted Wells Enterprises, also known as Wells Dairy, to voluntarily recall of 22 different ice cream and frozen yogurt products. This recall was initiated on April 25, which happened to be two days before a Sunday, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration enforcement report.
What Ice Cream And Frozen Yogurt Products Are Being Recalled
You could call this a “tub thumping” situation because all the recalled products came in three-gallon tubs, totaling over 17,000 tubs. Here are the products that are taking a thumping be the recall, their universal product codes and their lot numbers:
- Rocky Road Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640050314, Lot 50009
- Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream, UPC: 070640050420, Lot 50016
- Peanut Butter ‘N Fudge Ice Cream, UPC: 070640050574, Lot 50012
- Country Rich Vanilla Ice Cream, UPC: 070640600052, Lot 50085
- Scooper Hero Ice Cream, UPC: 070640050642, Lot 50011
- Cotton Candy Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640050482, Lot 50018
- GFGB Vanilla Bean Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640000272, Lot 50024
- Quick Blend Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640050604, Lot 50034
- Planet Smoothie ZSA Vanilla Fat Free Frozen Yogurt, UPC: 070640005567, Lot 50014
- Johnny Rockets Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640006564, Lot 50029
- BIPC Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640008025, Lot 50024
- Vanilla Frozen Yogurt, UPC: 00070640022144, Lot 50002
- Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640022250, Lot 50005
- GFGB 12 Percent Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 070640018451, Lot 50004
- Gordon Choice Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 00093901820730, Lot 50003
- Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (Madagascar Vanilla), UPC: 50758108658085, Lot 50026
- Glenview Farms Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 50758108118398, Lot 50066
- Glenview Farms Chocolate Ice Cream, UPC: 50758108118404, Lot 50033
- Glenview Farms French Vanilla Ice Cream, UPC: 50758108392668, Lot 50015
- Sysco French Vanilla Ice Cream, UPC: 00074865257275, Lot 50025
- Keith Valley Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 046045065871, Lot 50004
- Ellington Farms Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream, UPC: 046045065833, Lot 50003
As you can see, lots and lots of ice cream and frozen yogurt are part of the recall. It includes ones that are fat-free but may not be necessarily plastic free. These products have “Best If Used By” dates that range from March 2026 to October 2026. But for all of these, the “Best If used By” date should be “never.” If you do have any of these products, either return them for a refund or discard them. And make sure that you discard the ice cream or frozen yogurt in a way that your pets, kids or significant other who behaves like a pet or a kid won’t still accidentally eat it.
What To Do If You Have Ingested Plastic Fragments
It’s not clear from the FDA report how large these plastic fragments may be. This FDA did classify this recall as a Class II one, though, which the FDA considers to be “a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.” Therefore, the plastic fragments likely aren’t super large or super sharp. Chances are they aren’t the size of a lawn chair. If they are small and dull enough, most likely they will pass rather safely through your GI tract. Within two to three days or possibly more, poop there is, with the plastic fragments that is
A lot of the things I recently said in Forbes about glass fragments in bread apply to plastic fragments in ice cream as well. Naturally, you don’t want to voluntarily eat plastic. There are reasons why people don’t typically munch on their plastic spoons after they’ve used them to eat their ice cream.
While swallowing bits of plastic is not the same as swallowing a bunch of steak knives, plastic pieces could potentially do some damage if they are large and sharp enough. Sharp pieces could potentially cut through the lining of your mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, intestines or other parts of your gastrointestinal tract, potentially leading to bleeding, damage and infections. Larger plastic fragments could potentially end up obstructing parts of your GI tract.
Small amounts of plastic probably won’t have any toxic effects. Consistently and regularly eating large amounts of plastic may be a different story, depending on the type and stability of the plastic. But that doesn’t look like the situation here.
If you do suspect that you’ve ingested any amount of plastic, it can’t hurt to contact your doctor to get some guidance. Describe as best you can the size and shape of the plastic. Certainly notify a health professional if you’ve got symptoms like chest or abdominal discomfort or bloating, fever, blood in the stool or coughing up blood.
So far, there haven’t been any reports of health consequences from plastic contaminants in any of the Wells Dairy products. In other words, ingesting something like rocky road ice cream from Wells hasn’t seemed to result in a rocky road for anyone yet. All of this plastic fragment contamination could simply pass, both figuratively and literally.
