Death Toll from Boar’s Head Listeria Outbreak Hits 10
A former sanitation manager at the firm’s Virginia plant claims he was fired after he warned about lax health and safety standards.
In May of this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined a listeriosis outbreak traced to Boar’s Heads deli meat products.
Listeriosis (also referred to as listeria) is an infection caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. It occurs when contaminated food (in this case, deli meat) is eaten. Mild cases can result in nausea, diarrhea, and other flu-like symptoms. More severe cases can result in blood poisoning, meningitis, and death.
Cases of listeria have been traced back to the deli meat company since May, including over 50 illnesses. Now, a tenth fatal infection has been reported.
At least 59 people in 19 states have been sickened by the bacteria first detected in liverwurst made at the Jarratt, Virginia, plant. Illnesses were reported between late May and late August, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. All of those who fell ill were hospitalized.
The latest fatality was reported in New York, bringing the total deaths to two each in New York and South Carolina and one each in Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee and New Mexico.
10th death reported in Boar’s Head deli meat listeria outbreak in New York https://t.co/yaUtNcsvJs pic.twitter.com/EmSNtXSXJX
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) September 25, 2024
Over 4000 tons of meat have been recalled.
The CDC is continuing to urge people to check inspection labels before consuming any Boar’s Head products, since some have sell by dates up to October 2024.
Recalled products have the codes EST. 12612 or P-12612 inside the USDA mark of inspection on the product labels.
The CDC recommends people who bought the affected products throw them away or contact stores about returns.
Customers are urged to clean their refrigerators, containers, and surfaces that may have touched sliced deli meats.
The health agency previously recommended not eating deli meats unless they were reheated to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit – a temperature high enough to kill the bacteria.
Keeping the meats cold does not eliminate listeria.
Earlier this month, Boar’s Head announced it would indefinitely shut down the troubled Virginia deli meat plant where the contaminated deli meats were processed. The plant had a long list of health violations.
Two years ago, inspectors conducted an extensive review and concluded that conditions at the plant — rife with mold, rust and holes in walls — posed an “imminent threat” to food safety. That finding could have resulted in a warning letter or even a suspension of production there, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not take strict measures and allowed the plant to stay open until this outbreak forced a suspension in production in late July.
New federal records released on Friday reveal that inspectors who went into the plant after the outbreak found the company had inadequate controls to prevent the bacterial contamination from spreading and had no written plans for employees to safeguard against cross-contamination.
They tested for listeria in various places and found one positive result on equipment used to move ready-to-eat products. The findings were in an area that food-safety experts consider critical to keep clean: the zone of the plant where food has passed through the cooking step and is on its way to delivery trucks.
The company is also permanently ending its line of liverwurst.
“Our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt (Virginia) facility and was used only for liverwurst,” the company said in a statement.
“With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst.”
It must also be noted that a former sanitation manager at the firm’s Virginia plant claims he was fired after he warned about lax health and safety standards at the facility.
Terrence Boyce — who has nearly two decades of experience as a supervisor at food plants — was hired in 2023 for a newly created position at the Jarratt, Va., plant amid a food safety audit by federal regulators, Boyce told The Post.
“The government found a bunch of deficiencies or deviations and I guess I was brought in as a preventive and a corrective measure,” Boyce said.
But when the sanitation veteran began to speak up and recommend certain changes, he lost his job, he claims.
The company now faces at least seven separate lawsuits related to this outbreak. Some claimants are asking for damages as high as $5 million.
One has to wonder why the food safety violations were not addressed, and follow-up and more robust citations and corrective actions were not mandated by the inspectors who are supposed to look out for the public interest.
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Comments
sounds like a lot of baloney
Stop hamming it up.
proving that the government cant do the job
its up to each and every company to insure safety
when they dont
take them to court AND thats where the governments job is
so running a multi billion$ governemnt agency once again proves thats its useless
lets see how long a company stays in business when putting out bad products
instead of allowing kickbacks etc to the government
Too bad they couldn’t figure out how to regulate a meat processing plant as oppressively as they knew how to regulate a baby formula factory.
Agree, o different than the FDA’s perpetual failure at Indian drug plant inspections.
Terrible tragedy for all the families involved. Perhaps if Boar’s Head hired qualified US CITIZENS to work in their plants, this wouldn’t have happened. On Boar’s Head website before they started dropping bodies, was this disclaimer: ‘Boar’s Head is part of the ‘Tent Coalition for Refugees in the U.S.,’ exploring hiring, training and mentoring opportunities for refugees across the country.’
What’s the ‘Tent Coalition for Refugees.‘ That’s the collection of large, corporate employers who are working with the Biden Administration to flood the country with cheap, foreign and ILLEGAL labor to keep their own labor costs down and profits up.
https://www.tent.org/
Another example of how deadly it is for a nation to not enforce its own borders.
The Curse of the MBA – 120 years spent building up a reputation pissed away by chasing quarterly profits. They never learn: you can cut costs for a while and increase profit margins that way, However sooner or later you must cut into manufacturing standards and quality to continue that pursuit
The classic example is Cadillac – who are still trying to dig back out of the crater they made for themselves in the 1970’s.
Anyhow – Boarshead is now off the shopping list. They only got caught in one plant but the psychology will have pervaded the whole .company.
I no longer trust the American food supply. I fenced in my large backyard to keep the deers out. Now I will start to grow my own produce. Eventually I’ll have a greenhouse if I can get it past the HOA. I will get meat from Nearby ranchers. Europe has far stricter laws regulating food. Especially Italy which has a food police. I was in Italy last year eating in restaurants and cooking my own food which I bought in Italian markets. Far superior to American gruel. Fresher, tastier and probably safer.
“…probably safer”. It IS safer.
Maybe think about fencing another part of your yard to keep deer IN.
Mortality rate of listeria is about 20% and normally anyone who contracts it is sick enough to be hospitalized.
This indicates that many more people contracted it than have been counted (and since this is not a stay-at-home illness, this is surprising) or this is a particularly virulent strain.
Wasn’t that a Def Leppard album ?
The more I think about this, angrier, I get. In my opinion, the people who ignored the warnings, and fired the sanitation manager should be charged with involuntary manslaughter. They engaged in reckless actions that caused deaths. At worst the company faces lawsuits and fines. Not enough. Somebody needs to go to prison to show such reckless behavior leads to serious consequences. Fat chance. Industry owns our legislators. Government regulators are regulating their future employers thanks to the revolving door. Perfect example is the SEC. Read “No On Would Listen” by Harry Markopolos for the detailed story of how Bernie Madoff pulled off his scam. Markopolos brought the evidence to the SEC on a silver platter. They ignored him. Madoff turned himself in when financial markets collapsed. The SEC never caught him. They never wanted to catch him.
Don’t think for a minute that judges can’t be bribed. You just have to have the right connections and know how. Read “The Dark Side of Camelot” Chapter 6 :The Stolen Election” by Seymour Hersch for an inside peek at the judiciary. I also have by own experiences which I won’t go into.
So we can’t depend on the legislators, or the regulators, or the judiciary to protect us. We are on our own, which is why I’m going to grow my own produce, get my meat from ranchers, and my eggs from a trusted source.
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