Liverwurst, Listeria, and Liability: Food Safety at Boar’s Head

Art of Supply

When something goes wrong in the supply chain, it is never good news. It always leads to disruption, often costs a lot of money, and sometimes people get hurt - or worse.

In July of 2024, the USDA suspended production at a Boar’s Head processing plant in Jarratt, Virginia. A listeria outbreak, the worst such outbreak in over a decade, had started in the plant. The facility has been closed indefinitely, leading to over 500 layoffs of union employees, but that wasn’t the worst of the fallout.

Before the outbreak was over, over 7 million pounds of meat were recalled, 59 people were hospitalized, and 10 people lost their lives.

How could production have gone so wrong, especially in such a heavily inspected industry? Unfortunately, as the details emerged, it became clear that this was an easily preventable situation allowed to happen by multiple layers of mismanagement.

In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:

• The details behind the outbreak: Where did it start and how did it spread?
• An odd family squabble that may or may not have contributed to the problem but which certainly didn’t help
• Problems associated with inspections: How were they conducted and why did they fail to protect consumers?
• And what we can expect to happen next

Links:

• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
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