NJ deli owners discuss impact of Boar's Head closure of plant linked to listeria outbreak

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Boars Head officials announced the closing of the Jarratt, Virginia plant linked to the deadly listeria outbreak and discontinued its liverwurst products. New Jersey delis selling Boar's Head products have also gone through some changes since the first Boars Head recall in July, but now they're seeing more traffic. "When the news was circulating all over the country about what was going on with Boar's Head, things definitely tinkered down, since school started, things are tinkering back up," says Mike Castro, owner of Roosevelts Deli. Some deli owners say now, more customers are turning to them instead of supermarkets. "I've actually seen more people come here because they were scared to go to the supermarket," said Rob Rabinowitz, manager at Marco's Deli. "You want to make sure you're purchasing your meat from a place that's reputable and turns over their inventory regularly," said Castro. He said popular local delis usually turn over inventory often and were able to pull items from shelves quicker after the recall. Boar's Head came out with a statement apologizing for the outbreak linked to at least nine deaths, including one in New Jersey and about 50 hospitalizations. The company's letter says in part, "Our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst. With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst." It goes on to say, "Given the seriousness of the outbreak, and the fact that it originated at Jarratt, we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely close this location, which has not been operational since late July 2024." The company says to keep this from happening again, it has appointed a new chief food safety & quality assurance officer and established a Boar's Head Food Safety Council, comprised of food safety experts. "