ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Boar's Head this week expanded a massive recall of deli meats. U.S. Food Safety officials cited an outbreak of listeria that, so far, has killed two people and sickened 34 more. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports the latest recall includes an additional 7 million pounds of sliced and packaged meat and poultry.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: The company added 71 new products to a related recall last week of more than 200,000 pounds of meat. The newly recalled products bear the Boar's Head or Old Country brand and were made at the company's facility in Jarratt, Va., between May 10 and July 29. Thomas Gremillion is director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America.
THOMAS GREMILLION: This is significant just by virtue of volume.
NOGUCHI: He says the fact the recall now covers more than 7 million pounds of meat suggests some of the routine checks to catch foodborne illness had failed.
GREMILLION: So there should be - in addition to the end product testing, there should be environmental testing, and they're supposed to kind of step up the testing and the cleaning when they get a positive sample. And maybe there were some warning signs that weren't sufficiently heeded.
NOGUCHI: Usually, recalls are caught somewhere along the manufacturing and testing process before people get sick.
DONALD SCHAFFNER: This is different because it started with an outbreak.
NOGUCHI: That is Donald Schaffner, a food safety expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He says listeria adulteration had previously been found in samples of Boar's Head liverwurst, and regulators likely couldn't determine whether the bacteria had spread to a huge number of other products made in the same Virginia facility.
SCHAFFNER: Once that happens, that's when we have these cascading or expanding recalls because the agency goes in and they say, well, you know what? We don't like that you're doing this. We don't like that you're doing that. You have not convinced us that you really have this problem under control.
NOGUCHI: Listeria can be especially dangerous to those who are pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised. When sickened, people can get fever, diarrhea, head and muscle ache, stiffness or convulsions. Schaffner says once food is contaminated, the bacteria can be hard to contain. It spreads quickly, including potentially through the retail deli slicers grocers use.
SCHAFFNER: As they sit at room temperature jammed up inside a deli slicer, those listeria begin to multiply. And then the next thing that you go to slice on that deli slicer now gets cross-contaminated with those listeria.
NOGUCHI: He says concerned consumers should check the label on their sliced or packaged meats. If it does not bear the facility or establishment No. 12612, he says, rest assured. If the product is included in the recall, consumers can cook the product before consuming it or simply throw it out. One last tip - if it's been recalled, thoroughly clean your refrigerator and countertops as well. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
