Learn about Listeria, its symptoms and essential preventive measures to safeguard against the food borne illness.
Inadequate sanitation at a Boar's Head plant in Virginia was among major contributing factors that led to a deadly multistate listeria outbreak that killed 10 and sickened 61 last summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report released Friday.
Improved government oversight is needed, too, to prevent future outbreaks, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said in the report. The FSIS review of the Boar's Head outbreak "points to the need for the agency to examine and enhance all aspects of its approach" to combating listeria in food production, according to the report.
A month after the recall was initiated in July 2024, the USDA's FSIS released records showing 69 reports of "noncompliance" at Boars Head's plant in Jarratt, Virginia from inspectors in the weeks leading up to the recall. Among the findings: live and dead insects, mildew, black and green mold, and other unsanitary conditions.
Food producers are expected to address "each documented noncompliance," the new report said, but "repeated instances of insanitary conditions can present opportunities for growth or sustained presence of (Listeria monocytogenes)."
What is listeria?
A bacteria that can cause listeria poisoning or listeriosis, Listeria monocytogenes can survive and grow in refrigerated conditions and can be transmitted where food is produced, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Listeriosis is considered a serious condition and can be dangerous or life-threatening, especially to newborns, those aged 65 or older, those who are pregnant, and those with weak immune systems, according to the and pregnant people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC first started investigating the outbreak on July 19, 2024. Then, on July 26, Boar's Head began recalling products potentially linked to the listeria outbreak - first liverwurst made at the plant in Jarratt, then another 7 million pounds of deli meat on July 30. Boar's Head closed the plant on Sept. 13, 2024.
A total of 61 people across 19 states became ill in the outbreak, resulting in 60 hospitalizations and 10 deaths, but it's likely more were sickened, the CDC said.
USDA: Inspectors found product residue, condensation and structural problems at Boar's Head plant
Virginia state agriculture food safety inspectors, performing inspections for USDA under a federal grant, found "multiple instances of noncompliance" in sanitation at the Jarratt plant, the report says.
Documented instances of noncompliance cited in the report:
A review of the inspection records for the Boar's Head plant in Jarratt "indicates a pattern of conditions that presented an elevated risk for (listeria) contamination," the report said.
Food safety officials also did listeria testing at other Boar's Head plants in Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, and Virginia and "ensured any identified deficiencies were corrected and monitored in both the short- and long-term," the report said.
USDA: Inspections at ready-to-eat food plants to be prioritized
The FSIS will prioritize food safety inspections at plants making ready-to-eat meat and poultry products and expand the type of listeria tested in those plants to "help provide more information about the effectiveness of a facility's sanitation program," the report said.
Inspectors should also track repeated noncompliance findings as they can "collectively signal a broader systemic failure at an establishment," the report said.
Improvements are needed, the FSIS said in the report. The findings point "to the need for the agency to examine and enhance all aspects of its approach to (Listeria monocytogenes)," the report said.
Among other actions to be taken:
Attorney: With Boar's Head report, regulators fall short on 'responsibility to consumers'
A shortfall of the report is that there's no explanation of why the Boar's Head plant in Jarratt was allowed to remain open after so many noncompliance issues, said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based food safety attorney who represents five families of people who died in the outbreak and five who were sickened.
"10 people died needlessly (and) another 51 were hospitalized with a severe Listeria infections. Not to take anything away from Boar's Head and its responsibility, but what about the USDA/FSIS's responsibility to consumers?" Marler said to USA TODAY on Saturday.
He enumerated the unsanitary conditions pointed out in an October 2022 inspection report of the plant released by the USDA in a blog post on the firm's website. "Major deficiencies associated with the establishment's physical conditions were observed that could pose imminent threat to product," the report said. However, no follow-up report was deemed necessary.
Marler, who previously called for a congressional hearing into the situation, asked in the blog post, "Where is the Inspector General's Report? And, where are the Congressional Hearings?"
Back in September, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D, Conn., called on the USDA and Justice Department to strengthen USDA's listeria prevention protocols and to consider criminal charges against Boar's Head.
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