Hundreds of supermarkets around New York City have been advised to remove “Boar’s Head” signs until further notice after the popular deli meat brand was linked to a deadly Listeria outbreak, sparking a massive recall.
The association of 750 independent supermarkets issued the directive on Wednesday in response to the recall of an additional 7 million pounds of Boar’s Head products, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Washington Post.
The memo said the purpose was to “maintain customer trust and ensure their safety” and to “avoid confusion and reassure customers about the quality and safety of deli products.”
Sources told The Post that the memo to remove the Boar’s Head sign was issued in part out of fear of a lawsuit.
“We don’t believe we are responsible,” Nelson Eusebio, the NSA’s political director, told the Post, “but [lawsuits] It’s a concern.”
This was revealed Thursday when Boar’s Head Provisions was hit with a consumer class action lawsuit in New York federal court.
As of Tuesday, the outbreak had sickened 34 people in 13 states, hospitalized 33 and killed two, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
July 26, Boaz It was originally estimated to be more than £200,000. It requested the recall of liverwurst and other deli products over concerns about Listeria, a bacteria that can cause particular illness in pregnant women, those with weakened immune systems and the elderly.
The company significantly expanded the recall on Tuesday to include more than 70 products made at its Jarratt, Virginia, plant between May and July, the department said.
Many of the NSA member stores, including 500 New York City-area-based Key Food, C-Town, Associated and Bravo locations, have since closed their deli departments, mimicking a move by Stop & Shop, which closed deli counters in about 400 stores last week and on Tuesday.
Boar’s Head makes up up to 80 percent of the deli’s assortment, Eusebio added.
Food safety lawyer Bill Marler told The Post that the Boar’s Head outbreak is the largest meat recall in at least the last decade.
“Considering that we’ve recalled £7 million of product [federal agencies] “They’ve visited the facility and they must know something that we don’t know yet,” he said.
While Boar’s Head was the source of the outbreak, a case could also be made that the grocery store caused cross-contamination by not thoroughly cleaning its premises, Mahler said.
Federal officials confirmed this week that Boar’s Head liver sausage tested by the Maryland Department of Health and found last week to contain the deadly Listeria bacteria “matched the strain causing outbreaks found in more than a dozen states,” a spokesperson for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service told The Washington Post.
“We continue to work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state partners to investigate this outbreak,” the FSIS spokesperson added.
This week’s expanded recalls include: There are 71 products listed on the FSIS website.
