NBC News
A recall of Boar’s Head products has been expanded to include an additional 7 million pounds (3.1 million kilograms) of sausage and poultry due to a deadly outbreak of listeria infections in several states.
As of Tuesday, 34 people had fallen ill in 13 states, 33 of them hospitalized and two dead. The fatalities were one patient in Illinois and another in New Jersey.
Last week, the sausage company recalled more than 207,000 pounds of deli meats, including liverwurst and ham, because they may contain the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.
Boar’s Head has now expanded that recall, the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced in a news release Tuesday.
The expansion includes 71 products — including sliced beef and certain other packaged meat and poultry products — manufactured between May 10 and July 29 under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brands.
The products have expiration dates ranging from July 29 to October 17 of this year (see labels on recalled products here), and were distributed to retail outlets nationwide, with some to the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama.
Boar’s Head said in a statement posted on its website that it had initiated the recall after a sample of liverwurst collected by the Maryland Department of Health tested positive for listeria.
The Maryland Department of Health and the Baltimore City Health Department recalled an unopened liverwurst product from a retail store for additional testing that determined the product sample “tested positive for the outbreak strain,” the USDA statement said.
Boar’s Head said the first voluntary recall was for its Strassburger Brand Liverwurst, and nine additional products produced on the same production line at its facility in Jarratt, Virginia.
On Monday, the company explained that it learned from the USDA “that our Strassburger Brand Liverwurst has been linked to the nationwide outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes in deli meats,” and as a result the recall was expanded to include all items produced at the Jarratt facility.
“We have also decided to suspend ready-to-eat operations at this facility until further notice. As a company that prioritizes safety and quality, we believe this is the right thing to do,” the company said.
“There are no words to fully express our condolences and the sincere and profound sorrow we feel for the families who have suffered losses and others who have suffered illness,” the statement added.
People who bought the recalled products should throw them away or return them to the store, and also clean their refrigerators, as the bacteria can grow at low temperatures and spread to other foods.
FSIS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and state public health partners are conducting an investigation.
According to the Mayo Clinic, listeria is a foodborne bacterial illness that is often caused by eating poorly processed sausages and unpasteurized dairy products. It is the third leading cause of food poisoning deaths in the United States.
Symptoms usually appear within two weeks of eating contaminated food and include fever, muscle aches, fatigue, stiff neck and confusion. In severe cases, the bacteria can cause a blood infection, or meningitis. The infection is dangerous for older people, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women.
The CDC estimates that about 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die. Most cases are not related to outbreaks, but there are usually a few in a given year.
