Over a year after a deadly bacterial outbreak forced a Boar’s Head deli meat factory in Virginia to shutter indefinitely, the facility is reportedly set to reopen — but that doesn’t mean they’ve cleaned up their act.
Starting in May of last year, a number of people throughout the middle- and eastern-US began falling ill with symptoms eerily similar to the flu. Following several hospitalizations and two deaths traced to the same source, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officially launched an investigation into a listeria outbreak linked to rancid deli meat.
By the end of the outbreak, 10 people were dead, while 60 victims across 19 states were hospitalized with serious complications. Over 2.6 million pounds of deli meat had been destroyed to prevent further contamination. The culprit was Boar’s Head, one of the country’s most recognizable premium deli brands — and likely the most shadowy, as a 2024 investigation by the New York Times makes plain.
Anyone who’s taken a food safety course should be able to tell you that listeria is a bacteria that causes food poisoning. It can form in unpasteurized dairy products as well as uncooked pork and beef. It’s one of the reasons cross-contamination is such a big deal for food workers handling raw meat.
The squalid conditions at the Boar’s Head plant in Virginia made that cross-contamination almost inevitable. An August, 2024 investigation by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) found a factory infested with insects, sopping with butchered animal parts, and riddled with black mold.
One storage room contained a “steady line of ants” crawling in through an unsecured door, while a “clear liquid” was found dripping from the ceiling. Following the investigation, USDA officials ordered the plant to close indefinitely, leaving some 500 workers out of a job.
A year after the fact, the company’s record isn’t looking much better. A follow-up investigation by the Associated Press found that, though the USDA recently lifted its suspension, problems remain. For example, there were reports of “dried fat and protein” festering on equipment, stairs, and walls.
And though the ceilings seem to have stopped leaking at the Virginia location, other plants throughout the US point to “appalling” conditions.
Over the past few months, the AP reports, government officials have recorded issues at Boar’s Head facilities in Arkansas and Indiana, as well as another Virginia plant, such as drainage pipes blocked with discarded meat, condensation oozing from ceilings and floors, and workers who didn’t wash their hands.
That said, the company has taken a few cosmetic steps to address its issues, including hiring president Donald Trump’s former undersecretary of food safety, Mindy Brashears, as an expert advisor.
In a statement, Boar’s Head told the AP that is “has an unwavering commitment to food safety and quality. That commitment is reflected in recent enhancements to our practices and protocols.”
Queasy feelings notwithstanding, the company is chugging full steam ahead with the reopening, hiring machine operators, shipping clerks, and even a full-time pickle maker. A Virginia Food Safety Manager Certification isn’t listed as a condition to apply.
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