Ice cream is usually a surefire way to beat the summer heat — but Baltimoreans would be wise to take stock of their freezers, with a health-related recall impacting desserts from Taharka Brothers and a dozen other companies.
Totally Cool, an Owings Mills ice cream manufacturer, has recalled products from brands including Taharka Brothers, Dolcezza, Hershey’s, Friendly’s, Jeni’s and more, according to the FDA.
The products have “the potential to be contaminated” with listeria, a bacteria that can cause illness ranging in severity depending on one’s health and age, among other factors, an announcement posted to the FDA’s website Monday says.
Totally Cool’s recall list includes 16-ounce pints of Honey Graham and Key Lime Pie ice cream from Taharka Brothers purchased after April 4 with a best-by date of Oct. 1, 2025; multiple ice cream cakes from Friendly’s and Abilyn’s Frozen Bakery; and a number of desserts from Hershey’s, Yelloh!, Jeni’s, Cumberland Farms, The Frozen Farmer, Marco, ChipWich, AMAFruits, Dolcezza and LaSalle.
The recalled products were distributed nationwide, though there have been no reported illnesses, according to the recall announcement, which advises customers to return recalled products for a refund.
“Totally Cool, Inc. has ceased the production and distribution of the affected products due to FDA sampling which discovered the presence of Listeria monocytogenes,” the announcement says.
Totally Cool did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Facebook, Baltimore’s Taharka Brothers called Honey Graham and Key Lime Pie two of its “more popular” flavors. The company said the listeria “concern” was detected in Totally Cool’s ice cream cake production line, but that none has been found in Taharka’s pints.
Taharka Brothers co-founder Sean Smeeton told The Baltimore Sun that of its 28,000 pints produced by Totally Cool, approximately 16,000 remain in the company’s inventory.
“The financial loss of having to destroy 16,000 pints and refund customers will be difficult, but we’ll be ok,” he wrote in an email.
Smeeton said Taharka Brothers began producing new batches of the recalled flavors on Tuesday at its Hampden factory, and will bring on a crew of weekend workers. He estimated the recall could cost the company a loss of around $50,000.
On Facebook, the company said that it outsourced a lone production run of the two impacted flavors to Totally Cool to “meet the overwhelming demand for our ice cream.”
