Latest Boar's Head Report Shows Slime, Blood Puddles Contaminating the Plants

The latest report from three Boar's Head plants suggests that things are not just bad in the now-closed factory that was responsible for the nationwide listeria outbreak that killed 10 people and sickened countless others.

According to The Associated Press, Boar's Head plants in New Castle, Indiana; Forrest City, Arkansas; and Petersburg, Virginia, have recently released reports detailing numerous incidents of meat and fat residue left on walls and equipment and dripping condensation that falls on food, along with mold, insects, and other issues that date back about six years. In May, an inspector reported "general filth" in a room at the Indiana plant.

The Associated Press and other news outlets requested the inspection documents under the Freedom of Information Act, and the U.S. Agriculture Department provided them.

Some of the infractions discovered at the Jarratt, Virginia, plant connected to the food poisoning epidemic are echoed in the issues reported at the other three plants. The recently published reports reveal:

• Equipment was “covered in meat scraps” in 2019.
• “Dry crusted meat from the previous day’s production” and “dark, stinky residue” were left behind in 2020.
• “Dried meat juices and grime” covered a doorway in 2021.
• Flaking paint and green mold were discovered in 2022.
• “An abundance of insects” and “unidentified slime” were found in 2023.
• A puddle of “blood, debris and trash” was identified in 2024.

According to an email sent by Boar's Head management, the infractions found in the three factories "do not meet our high standards." The USDA continues to oversee the company's remaining plants as usual. The Sarasota, Florida-based business has spent decades positioning itself as a leading supplier of deli cheeses and meats.

Previous Boar's Head Plant Reports Revealed Bugs, Mildew, & More

In August 2024, the initial report about the Boar's Head plant in Jarrett, Virginia, revealed horrifying conditions that contributed to the nationwide listeria outbreak.

Trump-era regulation rollbacks, which The New Republic referred to as "turning back the clock" on meatpacking factories and resulted in conditions previously described in Upton Sinclair's seminal 20th-century novel "The Jungle," are mostly to blame for Boar's Head's problems.

According to a CBS News story, the Virginia factory had become so unsafe that it caused the contamination catastrophe that affected the entire country.

Unopened product samples from the Boar's Head facility were found to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials in many states. The products and the strain of bacteria that caused the outbreak were linked by genetic sequencing.

Records showing 69 "noncompliances" that the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service had found at the Jarratt, Virginia, factory during the previous year were given to CBS News after the agency received a Freedom of Information Act request.

The documents show that inspectors frequently cited Boar's Head for mold or mildew accumulation near the company's Jarratt plant, in addition to issues including insufficient paperwork and meat residue on machinery.