More Illnesses Anticipated in Listeria Outbreak Linked to Boar’s Head Deli Meat, Warns Food Safety Attorney
A well-known food safety lawyer says that more cases are likely to happen and that Congress should look into Boar’s Head after deli meat made in one of the company’s plants was linked to a listeria outbreak that is still going on in multiple states.
Since July 19, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported the outbreak, at least 57 people have been hospitalized and nine have died in 18 states. On August 28, the CDC said that the spread had caused six new deaths. The first deaths were in New Mexico, New York, South Carolina (2), and Tennessee.
According to Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer in Seattle, there will probably be more illnesses and maybe even more deaths because listeria can live for more than two months. This means that people who ate polluted deli meat in July could still get sick.
The CDC looked into it and found that deli meats, like Boar’s Head brand liverwurst, were contaminated with listeria, which made people sick. After that, Boar’s Head expanded its recall to include all of its products made at its plant in Jarratt, Virginia.
This week, inspection reports from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service showed that bugs, mold, and mildew were found at the plant in the 12 months before it shut down on its own because of the outbreak.
She told USA TODAY, “This is the worst set of inspection reports I have ever seen.”
Marler, who is representing the family of one person who died and two others who got sick during the outbreak, says Congress should look into how the listeria outbreak started and why officials let the conditions at the plant stay that way for so long.
“That’s crazy. This plant was better at making listeria than meat. Also, what were the testers doing?” He told USA TODAY.
Boar’s Head called back a list of deli foods
Based on its research, the CDC says that deli meats, such as Boar’s Head brand liverwurst, were contaminated with listeria and made people sick.
It was proven that the liverwurst was linked to the outbreak. On July 29, Boar’s Head said, “We have voluntarily decided to expand our recall to include all items made at the same facility as our liverwurst.” We recalled seven million pounds worth of goods as a safety measure because we thought it was the right thing to do.
There is a list of the recalled items below, and you can see the labels of those items here.
What did the federal government find at the Boar’s Head plant?
In the weeks before Boar’s Head Provisions Co., Inc. recalled more than 200,000 pounds of liverwurst on July 26 because it might have listeria, inspectors found insects (both alive and dead), black and green mold, and mildew in the plant.
In February 2024, inspectors found “ample amounts of blood in puddles on the floor” in the plant’s Raw Receiving cooler. In June 2024, they saw “a steady line of ants” on a wall. “There was also a rancid smell in the cooler.”
“It’s a layup, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, to have congressional hearings on why this happened and why FSIS inspectors let this thing drag on,” he said.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service reported 69 “noncompliances” at the company over the past year. CBS News was the first to get the agency records by using the Freedom of Information Act. USA TODAY also asked for the inspection papers and confirmed the reports on their own.
This map shows which states are being hit by the listeria spread.
Listeria has been linked to sliced deli meat, according to the CDC. Nine people have died and 57 have been sickened in 18 states.
The following map shows where the 57 people who got listeria lived. People died in Virginia, Florida, New Mexico, South Carolina, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.