Boar’s Head Provisions Co., Inc. has announced its intention to ‘indefinitely close’ its Jarratt production location. The announcement was posted yesterday (September 13, 2024) on the company’s website.
The company initially suspended production after receiving a Notice of Suspension from the USDA on July 26, 2024.
Liverwurst manufactured at the Jarratt location was identified as the probable source of a deadly outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes, which has sent 57 people to hospital, killing nine of them, according to the most recent update from the CDC, posted on August 28, 2024.
The Jarratt plant is one of five Boar’s Head production facilities registered with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The other four facilities have not been implicated in this outbreak.
According to the company’s announcement, an investigation “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.”
As a result, Boar’s Head also has decided to permanently discontinue production of liverwurst.
What FSIS found
The FSIS Notice of Suspension highlighted multiple findings of product adulteration and unsanitary conditions, including:
- Listeria monocytogenes outbreak strain was recovered from an unopened package of Boar’s Head liverwurst by the Maryland Department of Health
- Listeria monocytogenes outbreak strain was recovered from the surface of a pallet jack during production of Beechwood Ham. The environmental swab sample was collected as part of the FSIS Intensified Verification Testing as part of the outbreak investigtion.
- Beaded condensation on door opening and inside blast cell dripping over nine trees (ie., support racks) of Beechwood Hams
- Clear liquid falling from a patch in the ceiling within ten feet of a fan that was blowing the liquid into an area where nine trees of Assorted Hams were stored.
The Jarratt location relied solely upon its Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and sanitation program to control the risk of Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The FSIS determined that the recovery of Listeria monocytogenes from both a finished product and an environmental sample demonstrated the inadequacy of the company’s control methods.
The Notice of Suspension summarized the FSIS’s conclusions as follows:
The wholesomeness of your product is directly dependent on the design and implementation of your sanitation program, adequate Listeria monocytogenes control measures and overall maintenance of your facility, including the sanitary procedures conducted in your food production. Evidence demonstrates failure to comply with regulatory requirements identified in 9 CFR 416, including SPS and SSOP requirements, as outlined above. Findings result in FSIS being unable to conclude that sanitary conditions are being maintained, resulting in your establishment’s producing and shipping adulterated product. As such, product may have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions, whereby product may have become contaminated with filth or whereby product may have been rendered injurious to health, rendering the product adulterated.
Boar’s Head’s response
In it’s September 13th announcement, the company revealed the measures it is taking to implement “enhanced food safety and quality measures.” Specifically,
- Appointing a new Chief Food Safety & Quality Assurance Officer, to report directly to the president of the company.
- Establishing a “Boar’s Head Food Safety Council” comprised of independent industry-leading food safety experts. Founding members of the Council will include Dr. David Acheson, Dr. Mindy Brashears, Dr. Martin Wiedmann, and Frank Yiannas, MPH. Some of these individuals have been assisting with the investigation of the problems in the Jarratt facility.
- Creation of an enhanced companywide food safety and QA program, to be led by the Chief Food Safety Officer.
The bottom line
The evidence of unsanitary conditions at the Jarratt location was well documented during the course of a Food Safety Assessment conducted by the FSIS in October 2022.
Yet, the company was allowed to continue production.
The FSIS owes an explanation and an apology to the general public over its failure to act in the face of egregious sanitation and food-safety lapses on the part of the company.
Boar’s Head has apologized to consumers. When will the FSIS do likewise?
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