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Boar's Head plant posed an 'imminent threat' years before listeria outbreak
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y agoI do not suppose a regular person can get access to all of the failed food safety audits in the past few years? Also, why is there not a remediation date by which there will be a follow-up assessment?
- jimmygrapes 2y agoMany records can be accessed at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/about-fsis/freedom-information-act-foia/frequently-requested-records https://www.fsis.usda.gov/about-fsis/freedom-information-act... and if for some reason one is not available a FOIA request can be submitted fairly simply
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y agoEugh pdfs. Even worse, the first one I tried was a scanned PDF, though they had at least run it through OCR.
- interloxia 2y agoProbability not directly the answer to your question, but similar examples are Australian name and shame lists. E.g. https://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/offences https://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/offences
- engineer_22 2y agohttps://archive.is/AeyCc https://archive.is/AeyCc "Deli meat produced at the Jarratt, Va., plant between May 10 and July 29 is believed to be responsible for the deaths of nine people and the hospitalization of dozens of others in the nation’s largest listeriosis outbreak since 2011. Boar’s Head issued a recall of more than 70 products produced during that time, such as ham, bologna and bacon, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Food safety experts say the pattern of violations reflect a failed food safety system and have questioned why the plant was not closed sooner."
- jeffwask 2y agoPremium Cold Cuts means something different these days
- sickofparadox 2y agoDoes anyone think there is room for a D2C company to start curing its own meats and deliver cold cuts to people's doorstep?
- buildsjets 2y agoStartup cured deli meats sounds like a recipe for distributed delivery of salmonella.
- astrodust 2y agoCould include some locally sourced "raw water" and offer options for unpasteurized, unrefrigerated milk.
- geodel 2y agoYes, I'd also like to have some small batch organic snake oil. Given its tremendous health benefits Big Pharma and their lobbyists in DC are choking the supply of it.
- nordsieck 2y ago> Could include some locally sourced "raw water" Pro tip: it's cheaper to sell to consumers if it's dehydrated first.
- geodel 2y agoAdd AI infused Kubernetes to the recipe and a16z will be all over to invest in startup like this.
- anon84873628 2y agoAre these products really "cured" then? Wasn't that a process used to preserve food before the existence of refrigeration? I understand it could be done incorrectly, but I'm also confused at what modern products are exactly.
- BobaFloutist 2y ago
- adrianco 2y agoI wonder if the other Boars Head plants also have issues. Avoid the entire brand? What brands have better hygiene?
- engineer_22 2y agoFrom this, and linked articles on New York Times, the suggestion is laxed food safety standards are endemic across the entire processed food industry.
- jgeada 2y ago[flagged]
- matwood 2y agoThe article paints a picture of lack of enforcement, not regulation.
- darby_nine 2y agoHow do you distinguish these behaviors?
- matwood 2y agoThere are a lot of regulations. They were inspected. They failed inspections. Then the inspectors did nothing. All the additional regulations can be added that we want, but if the inspectors don't close the plant, they are meaningless.
- darby_nine 2y agoSure, but regulation without enforcement is a meaningless concept. This just looks like defacto lack of regulation to me.
- jtbayly 2y ago
- nerdjon 2y agoAs more has come out about this, it is quite disappointing. I used to swear by Boars Head and would choose the store I am going too based on if they carried it. A mistake happening and causing a serious problem is still obviously bad, but is one thing. But from what they are describing I have no idea how this was able to continue running. I know right now it is stopping me from getting basically any deli meat or similar products from any brand.
- Suppafly 2y ago>I used to swear by Boars Head and would choose the store I am going too based on if they carried it. This, we used to get meat from the 'good' Kroger because their deli had a better selection than the one in our neighborhood. If the premium brand is poison, I'm not sure what that says for the budget brands.
- dan_quixote 2y agoI think your perception of "premium" is flawed in this case.
- SllX 2y agoPeople keep saying that in this thread, but Boar’s Head does taste better than the crap that was more common before it. I’ve since found better deli meats, but even if I never eat another Boar’s Head product again, I’ll never eat Oscar Meyer or the other crap that was on the shelf next to it either again, or whatever Safeway was selling in its deli before they did their whole rebrand to serving Boar’s Head (actually I don’t shop there either anymore but for unrelated reasons).
- nerdjon 2y agoTastes better but also has a better texture. For me it got to the point that I would rather have deli meat less than get more of some cheaper brand.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoIt’s really disappointing to hear that a prominent brand with a positive reputation like boar’s head actually had serious hygiene issues. Articles I’ve read talk about the disgusting conditions in the plant, and I have to assume this is true across the entire company. There’s no way I’ll buy their products again, or eat at restaurants carrying their food (many advertise their sandwiches as using boars head). I wish restaurants were forced to reveal their supply chain.
- post_break 2y agoThis is just like Blue Bell Ice cream. They killed people with their products. I'll never eat their stuff again and adding Boars head to the list.
- ToDougie 2y agoAbsolutely agreed. The race to the bottom is deadly.
- vlachen 2y agoA cautionary note: Often times a food manufacturing plant will contract with and produce multiple brands on the same equipment. For instance, I've seen brand name, store label, and bargain brand waffles come off the same line, with the same equipment and using the same ingredient stocks. Of course, an industrial food plant isn't going to have a searchable presence online. It is quite difficult to find out exactly what any such facility makes, let alone what brands come out of it. Of course I can't speak for every factory or brand, but my experience tells me to try and be cognizant of where bad products are made in addition to the brands themselves.
- dredmorbius 2y ago"Store brand" products are an IMO egregious case of this. Often it's utterly impossible to tell where a product has been manufcatured (as in: plant or factory), and somewhat ironically, correlated product recalls are often the only way of establishing where a store sources its "in house" brands. The fact is that "in house" isn't, and what both the merchant and manufacturer are in fact preserving is the market ignorance of who the ultimate producer is.
- MisterTea 2y agoThe town is tiny with a population of 652 people. Seems like a perfect scenario for the company: setup plant in small town to employ cheap labor, be the largest employer in the town, use that leverage to prevent action taken against them. I can hear it now... "Now hold on here, we can't go shutting down the largest employer of registered voters in town. I personally spoke to the plant manager and they assured me they are committed to fixing the issues. Plant stays open." - The Mayor
- zomg 2y agowhat's particularly disappointing is that the USDA knew about this for TWO YEARS prior to the outbreak and forced no action. and of course there will be no accountability.
- aaronbrethorst 2y agoI wonder if this would’ve happened without the Trump deregulation in 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1055451 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1055451
- datavirtue 2y agoHow do you come back from this? Their whole schtick is absolute, unadulterated quality. Perfection. From this they garnered extremely high prices. They had it in the bag.
- vkou 2y agoEasy. Just keep spending on marketing and bribing stores to give them preferential placement. You think they were a premium brand, that did not compromise on quality. Do you have any evidence of this? Or did you believe it because they told you they were, and because they charge more? This is the beauty of unregulated free markets. With no actual baseline for quality, it's often easier to dupe people into believing that you're not cutting corners, than it is to not cut corners. And for all intents and purposes, this is an unregulated market. The inspectors have been finding a horror show for years, but couldn't shut it down because, well, that would impact the meatpacker's bottom line, and some apparatchik somewhere is getting paid off to make sure that won't happen, and he will make your life very unpleasant if you try to make waves. Regulations with no teeth aren't regulations. Everyone's mad at Boar's Head, but the actual problem is in the systemic failures that lead to the plant being open after it failed inspection after inspection. The business should be liquidated, it's current owners are clearly incapable of operating it.
- from-nibly 2y agoIt wasnt unregulated though. We have this thing called the FDA. Problem solved right?
- vkou 2y agoWhen regulators can't shut a plant down for a violation like this, it's not actually regulated. People watch historic documentaries (like HBO's Chernobyl /s) and ooh and aah about how stupid the Soviet safety and bureaucratic culture was, without a shred of self-reflection about how our systems also make ruinous outcomes inevitable.
- 2y ago
- AyyEye 2y agoBuy your food from a local farmer. It is healthier and tastes better (and doesnt support big agra corps). For everyone that thought boars head was 'premium' you'll be blown away. Even the lowest quality local farms are usually going to be better than the best industrial producers. You can often buy a whole (or half or 1/4) animal. They will have a butcher to process the animals for you. Search for "community supported agriculture" here is one directory[1] but there are others. There may be a co-op near you that goes farm to farm collecting food orders and delivers them to you or to a pickup spot close to you. [1] https://www.localharvest.org/csa/ https://www.localharvest.org/csa/
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoThis discussion is about deli meat. Are you implying that Frank the Farmer down the road making baloney in a bathtub is "healthier and tastes better" than processed deli cuts made in a USDA inspected factory? Not excusing what happened here at all but this assertion and all "buy local" hysteria is simply subjective hippy nonsense. A few years back some "local" cheese makers got busted with plenty of food safety and quality issues and then you read they're wearing filthy shit-covered boots into the cheese making room. "Buy local" has zero relationship to food safety or quality.
- monkeyfun 2y agoCould you link to an article on those local (to where, btw?) cheesemakers?
- wannacboatmovie 2y agohttps://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dirty-wash-company-blamed-cheese-recall-flna1C9468884 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dirty-wash-compan...
- monkeyfun 2y agoThanks! That article's so beyond my expectations, haha.
- binary132 2y agoI feel certain that the entire industry is probably at least this bad. It’s not a question of if, but when.
- dredmorbius 2y agoIt's a Jungle out there... <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle> (Meant to promote awareness of worker safety rather than food hygiene. "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach" -- Sinclair. Still, its impact and legacy are profound.)
- ddmf 2y agoPeople think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time If you paid attention, you'd be worried too You better pay attention Or this world you love so much might just kill you
- dredmorbius 2y agoRandy Newman, notable for use as the theme to Monk: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Jungle_Out_There_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Jungle_Out_There_(song)>
- 6bb32646d83d 2y agoWhat does it take for a plant to be shutdown pending corrective action? The violations cited seem like they should be enough to warrant that. Because of their inaction, 9 peoples died. It's a failure of the regulatory agency