A Boar’s Head processing plant that shut down last year amid a deadly, multistate listeria outbreak is set to reopen in the coming months, officials said.
The outbreak linked to the Jarratt, Va., plant sickened more than 60 people across 19 states and killed 10, including two in New York and one in New Jersey. It also prompted the company to recall more than 7 million pounds of deli products and permanently discontinue production of liverwurst.
An investigation into the health emergency — the nation’s largest listeria outbreak since 2011 — began in July 2024, after a sample of Boar’s Head liverwurst from a Maryland store tested positive for the bacteria.
By September, the popular deli meat provider announced it would “indefinitely close [the Jarratt] location” due to the “seriousness of the outbreak” that originated there. Citing the company’s failure to maintain sanitary conditions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture withdrew the federal marks of inspection required to operate and suspended Boar’s Head’s operations.
But earlier this week, USDA officials confirmed the suspension was lifted on July 18, following a thorough review of the plant.
“The facility is in full compliance of the guidelines and protocols set for the safe handling and production of food and the serious issues that led to suspension have been fully rectified,” officials with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said Wednesday.
However, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Boar’s Head plants in Arkansas, Indiana and elsewhere in Virginia have recently been flagged for some of the same issues that led to last year’s outbreak.
Over the past seven months, inspectors reported multiple instances of “noncompliances” such as drains blocked with meat, garbage receptacles “overflowing with trash onto the production floor,” and staff who failed to wear hairnets or wash their hands, the document shows.
With News Wire Services
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