Before causing the worst listeriosis outbreak in the U.S. since 2011, Boar’s Head was best known as one of the most recognizable — and most ruthless — deli-meat brands at the supermarket. The company started in 1905, when founder Frank Brunckhorst started selling deli meats out of a horse-drawn carriage in Brooklyn, New York. As it expanded into a $3 billion per year business, Boar’s Head made aggressive moves to protect its reputation for high quality. The company sued competitors with similar names and pulled products from grocery stores that prioritized any other brands over Boar’s Head. Thanks to partnerships with supermarkets like Publix in Florida and Schnucks in Missouri, Boar’s Head secured its place in the refrigerators of American families across the country.
But that all changed this summer when health officials discovered an outbreak of the dangerous food-borne bacteria Listeria at a Boar’s Head factory in Virginia. Ten people died and dozens were hospitalized in 19 states because of the outbreak. The company recalled more than 7 million pounds of deli meat and permanently stopped production of liverwurst. The entire deli industry felt the impact of the Boar’s Head outbreak. “I had a customer come in, he was about 75 years old,” said Paul DiSpirito, who runs Lioni Italian Heroes sandwich shop in New York. “He has been eating cold cuts every day of his life for 60 years. He told me he hasn’t eaten a cold cut in a month and a half. So my bill is down. We are selling less Boar’s Head.”
Boar’s Head isn’t the only company to make the news for a food poisoning outbreak recently. This month, McDonald’s was the focus of an E. coli outbreak tied to its Quarter Pounder burger. In 2015, Chipotle made headlines after dozens of people got sick from an outbreak of E. coli. While all these foodborne illnesses might seem like a growing trend, experts say the problem isn’t an uptick in tainted food. Instead, recent legislation around food safety modernization has made it easier and faster to track outbreaks to their source, providing consumers with vital information while companies deal with fallout from the public.
Questions:
- What impact could the Boar’s Head food poisoning outbreak have on connected industries, such as grocery stores and sandwich shops?
- Do you think Boar’s Head will be able to recover its reputation with consumers after its food poisoning outbreak? Why or why not?
Sources: Ellen Ioanes and Li Zhou, “Why Food Recalls Are Everywhere Right Now,” Vox, Oct. 23, 2024; Matt Stieb, “Could a Little Liverwurst Take Down a 100-Year Deli Empire,” New York Magazine, Sept. 4, 2024.