An Owings Mills ice cream manufacturer laid off nearly all of their employees and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday following a product recall over potential listeria contamination, according to court documents.

An unannounced inspection on May 20 led to Food and Drug Administration officials discovering listeria around one of the Totally Cool corporation’s production lines. Over the next month, the plant recalled more than 60 products, including two ice cream flavors for Baltimore’s Taharka Brothers pints, said the documents in U.S Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland.

All but three of the company’s 71 employees lost their jobs when Totally Cool, which has operated in Maryland since the early 1990s, ceased all production. The decision to shut down manufacturing came three days after the FDA told Totally Cool to stop all production lines, leading the company to “suffer the loss of all revenue streams,” documents said.

With the bankruptcy filing, the company will be able to restructure and work toward paying back its between 50 and 99 creditors. Totally Cool’s liabilities are between $1 million and $10 million, while its assets are listed between $500,000 and $1 million. Company CEO Michael Uhlfelder has been authorized to sell “some or all of the company’s assets,” the documents said.

Some of the largest creditors with unsecured claims to the company include United Dairy in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio. Other creditors include Hershey’s Ice Cream in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Dolcezza gelato in Washington, D.C.; Friendly’s Manufacturing in Fort Worth, Texas; and Taharka Brothers in Baltimore.

Beloved Taharka Brothers’ flavors Honey Graham and Key Lime Pie, purchased in 16-ounce containers after April 4 with a best-by date of Oct. 1, 2025, were affected by the recall. No illnesses were reported in connection with the outbreak, according to the FDA website.

A spokesperson for Totally Cool previously told The Banner that the recall was “being made out of an abundance of caution.” Taharka Brothers co-founder Sean Smeeton also noted that with listeria not being detected in the pint production area and their ice cream reported clean for the bacteria by previous tests, “the odds of listeria being in our pints are probably close to zero.”

An attorney representing Totally Cool did not respond to requests for comment.

The business began as an ice cream shop in Eldersburg in Carroll County before finding a niche selling more specialty desserts to restaurants, hotels and other private vendors, according to a 1998 Baltimore Business Journal article.