Blue Bell officials announced Thursday evening that they are temporarily stopping all operations at their Broken Arrow plant.
The plant employs 230 people and a company representative confirmed that all of those jobs are safe.
The announcement comes nearly two weeks after the company issued a recall of some of its products.
"I've gone there with my family and watched the whole process through the window," said Broken Arrow resident Tresa Antao.
Antao said that she loves having the company just past her backyard.
Company spokesman Gene Grabowski said the company is closing the plant, for now, to preserve the trust of customers like Antao. Grabowski said they hope to complete the inspection and reopen the plant within a week.
"We will thoroughly inspect the facility for any possible problems that may have led to the contamination of some of our ice cream products in the past few weeks," company officials said in a statement.
The closure was voluntary, and Blue Bell officials said they have notified the Food and Drug Administration.
A release on the Blue Bell website reads:
"Blue Bell Creameries is voluntarily suspending operations at our manufacturing plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. We will then thoroughly inspect the facility for any possible problems that may have led to the contamination of some of our ice cream products in the past few weeks.
We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution to ensure that we are doing everything possible to provide our consumers with safe products and to preserve the trust we have built with them and their families for more than a century.
The Broken Arrow operations will be suspended so that our team of expert consultants can conduct a careful and complete examination to determine the exact cause of the contamination. We have notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of our action and we remain committed to being transparent with that federal agency. Once our investigation is complete and we have made all necessary improvements, it will return to operation.
Our other plants continue to operate and supply our products to retail stores and institutional customers.
We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this step may cause, but we believe it is the right thing to do for you, our consumers, who for generations have relied on Blue Bell for the freshest and finest ice cream."
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