Ars Technica – The Boar’s Head deli-meat plant at the epicenter of a nationwide Listeria outbreak that killed nine people so far harbored the deadly germ in a common area of the facility deemed “low risk” for Listeria.
Further, it had no written plans to prevent cross-contamination of the dangerous bacteria to other products and areas. That’s according to a federal document newly released by Boar’s Head.
Blood puddles, mold, tainted meat, bugs: Boar’s Head inspections are horrifying
On Friday, the company announced that it is indefinitely closing that Jarratt, Virginia-based plant and will never again produce liverwurst—the product that Maryland health investigators first identified as the source of the outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes.
The finding led to the recall of more than 7 million pounds of Boar’s Head meat.
The Jarratt plant, where the company’s liverwurst is made, has been shuttered since late July amid the investigation into how the outbreak occurred.
In the September 13 update, Boar’s Head explained that “our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst. With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst.”
While the statement seems to offer some closure on the outbreak’s source, previously released inspection reports described a facility riddled with sanitation failures.
Between August 1, 2023, and August 2, 2024, the facility was cited for 69 violations …
Beth Mole – Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes.
