United States: The health authorities continued to report the number rising to 10 of the people who died from Listeria caused by deli meats produced by Boar’s Head.
A more recent update to the list from the US CDC added to New York State one more death. In total, sixty people have been clinically affirmed to have developed illnesses and were hospitalized after taking the above products containing the above detrimental bacterium.
According to the CDC, “One person got sick during their pregnancy and remained pregnant after recovering,” US News reported.
More about the incidence
Jarratt, Virginia-based manufacturing plant of Boar’s Head, which was found responsible for Listeria, is the newest food-borne illness and has been closed since September 13.
According to the company in a statement released on September 13, “Our investigation has 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. With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst,” US News reported.
Boar’s Head also said that it thinks it knows where contamination might be coming from. Sustained loss of lives has occurred in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The CDC said it was now the largest listeria outbreak in the United States since another one, which was attributed to tainted cantaloupes in 2011.
The recall has been disseminated to seventy-one products processed between May 10 and July 29 under Boar’s Head and Old Country brand.
Some of the suspect products were actually recovered in family refrigerators as they had sell dates as early as October.
According to the CDC, “Everyone should check their homes for any remaining recalled Boar’s Head products since they can have [a long] shelf life,” US News reported.
“Look for ‘EST. 12612’ or ‘P-12612’ inside the USDA mark of inspection on the product labels,” CDC added.
Plant shutdown calls
Calls to shut down the Jarratt plant have been made due to the firm’s receipt of citations from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in the past two years.
On July 30, the recall of Boars Head deli meats expanded to an extra 7 million pounds of product because they also could contain Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
In a letter from FSIS to Boars Head on July 31, the agency said that it was requiring the Jarratt plant to stop operations because of continuous failures by the company “to maintain sanitary conditions.”