The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching an internal investigation, months after a deadly listeria outbreak linked to a Boar’s Head deli meat plant in Virginia.
Since May, 10 people have died, while 50 others have been hospitalized, all of whom were believed to have eaten Boar’s Head products infected with listeria. Boar’s Head eventually recalled more than seven million pounds of deli meat nationwide, and shut down the Jarratt, Virginia, plant the tainted meat originated from. Now, the USDA is now trying to determine whether its inspectors properly handled the plant’s lengthy history of unsanitary conditions.
“USDA took virtually no action, allowing Boar’s Head to continue business as usual at its chronically unsanitary Virginia plant,” U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said in a news release on October 15. “The Virginia plant should have been shut down years ago, before people got sick or died from Listeria.”
According to a letter from Blumenthal to the U.S. Inspector General’s Office, past government inspections at the Virginia factory revealed black patches of mold on a ceiling, blood puddled on floors, a “rancid smell” coming from the facility’s cooler, and large pieces of meat being kept on the floor. Despite those findings, the plant was allowed to stay open all the way up until Boar’s Head shut it down themselves in the wake of the listeria outbreak.
