The good news for Maytag Dairy Farms is the company’s fall catalog has been released and the dairy has resumed selling products with its label after a hiatus that’s lasted through most of 2016.
Dustin Vande Hoef of the Iowa Department of Agriculture said the farms are still under a voluntary shutdown. The plant has not produced any of its famous blue cheese since February due to potential Listeria contamination.
“Our Dairy Products Control Bureau will need to do a full inspection before they can begin producing cheese again,” Vande Hoef said. “Our dairy inspectors have conducted an inspection of their retail facility so they are allowed to re-label and sell cheese produced at other facilities to sell in their retail store.”
A statement that had been on the homepage of the Maytag Dairy Farms website, which read "The Maytag Dairy Farm is closed while we continue work upgrading our facilities," has been removed.
Ordering of the repackaged products can be done online from the company's fall web catalog.
Reichert Dairy Air Farms of Knoxville and Frisian Farms of Oskaloosa are the contracted suppliers listed in the dairy’s recently published fall catalog. The dairy was recently permitted to sell, as relabeled Maytag Dairy Farms products, these suppliers’ items through a catalog.
Maytag Dairy Farms regular production plant remains shut down and requests for interviews regarding the 75-year-old company’s future plans have been declined.
After a pair of February recalls, the company announced it was ceasing all plant production and shipping of all “Maytag Blue” blue cheese wedges, wheels and crumble products, and hasn’t resumed it. Stores across the country, ranging from Hy-Vee Stores and Whole Foods locations to an upscale restaurant in San Diego, were carrying one or more Maytag products at the time.
Hy-Vee’s Newton location removed an elaborate display that was devoted to Maytag products. Hy-Vee personnel said no one from the dairy has contacted the store about any potential orders or product availability.
The farm got its start when Elmer Henry Maytag, son of Maytag Corporation founder F.L. Maytag, formed a dairy farm in 1919 to produce milk for the family and company.
When F.L. Maytag died in 1937, the inheritance of Fred Maytag II and his brother, Robert Maytag, included a dairy and Holstein dairy cattle. They oversaw the creation of a cheese plant and storage caves on the farm.
Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com