Skip to Main Content Business Boar's Head stopped making liverwurst and shuttered its Jarratt, Virginia, plant in September after listeria poisoning connected to the item sickened more than 60 individuals in 19 states, consisting of 10 who passed away.
A Boar's Head logo design is seen at a bodega in New York, Aug. 30, 2024. AP Photo/Stephanie Nano, File
By JONEL ALECCIA, Associated Press
January 14, 2025|2:34 PM
Federal government inspectors recorded unhygienic conditions at numerous Boar's Head deli meat plants, not simply the factory that was closed down in 2015 after a lethal break out of listeria poisoning, federal records reveal.
Recently launched reports from Boar's Head plants in New Castle, Indiana; Forrest City, Arkansas; and Petersburg, Virginia, explained several circumstances of meat and fat residue left on devices and walls, leaking condensation falling on food, mold, bugs and other issues going back approximately 6 years. Last May, one inspector recorded “basic dirt” in a space at the Indiana plant.
The U.S. Agriculture Department launched the assessment records in action to Freedom of Information Act demands from The Associated Press and other wire service.
The issues recorded at the 3 factories echo a few of the offenses discovered at the Jarratt, Virginia, plant connected to the gastrointestinal disorder break out. The recently launched reports explain:
- Devices “covered in meat scraps” in 2019.
- “Dry crusted meat from the previous day's production” and “dark, smelly residue” left in 2020.
- An entrance covered in “dried meat juices and gunk” in 2021.
- Green mold and flaking paint in 2022.
- “Unidentified slime” and “an abundance of bugs” in 2023.
- A puddle of “blood, particles and garbage” in 2024.
Boar's Head authorities stated in an e-mail Monday that the infractions recorded in the 3 factories “do not fulfill our high requirements.” The business's staying plants continue to run under typical USDA oversight, they included. The Sarasota, Florida-based business has actually marketed itself for years as a premier supplier of deli meats and cheeses, marketing “quality that differs in every bite.”
Records from a 4th Boar's Head plant in New Holland, Michigan, do disappoint comparable issues.
Boar's Head stopped making liverwurst and shuttered its Jarratt, Virginia, plant in September after listeria poisoning connected to the item sickened more than 60 individuals in 19 states, consisting of 10 who passed away.
Health authorities in Maryland at first found listeria contamination in a plan of unopened liverwurst. The business remembered more than 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat deli meat and poultry offered across the country. About 2.6 million pounds was ultimately recuperated, according to the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The conditions exposed at the other Boar's Head plants are “truly worrying,” stated Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, a not-for-profit advocacy group.
“It's sensible for some individuals to choose they do not wish to consume deli meat,” he stated.
