Congressional lawmakers are skeptical that the Boar’s Head deli meat plant at the center of a deadly Listeria outbreak last year will be fit to reopen after recent inspections at three other Boar’s Head facilities turned up similarly alarming sanitation problems—including mold, condensation on ceilings, overflowing trash, meat residue caked onto equipment and walls, and employees failing to wash their hands. In a letter dated September 15, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and nine other Congress members noted reports that Boar’s Head plans to reopen the Jarratt, Virginia, facility in the coming months. The plant—and particularly the liverwurst product made there—was determined to be the source of a Listeria outbreak that spanned May to September of last year, sickening at least 61 people across 19 states. Of those 61 people, 60 were hospitalized and 10 died. The company recalled more than 7 million pounds of meat. Amid the outbreak, it came to light that inspectors with the US Department of Agriculture had found dozens of stomach-turning sanitation violations at the plant, including mold, condensation dripping on meats, insects, and puddles of blood. Boar’s Head responded with a vow to never make liverwurst again and claimed to be cleaning up its act—and the Jarratt facility, which was shut down last September amid the outbreak. But, subsequent inspection reports at three of the company’s other facilities—ones in Arkansas, Indiana, and a second plant in Virginia—have turned up similar sanitation problems. And some of the alarming inspection reports were as recent as this past June.
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