Boar’s Head reopens Virginia deli meat plant tied to deadly listeria outbreak

The Boar’s Head deli meat plant tied to a deadly food-poisoning outbreak in 2024 is back in business, company officials said.

The Jarratt, Virginia, site resumed limited operations on Monday, nearly 17 months after it was shut down following the listeria outbreak that killed 10 people and sickened dozens.

Boar’s Head, a 120-year-old company based in Sarasota, Florida, permanently stopped making liverwurst and recalled 7 million pounds (more than 3 million kilograms) of deli products in the wake of the illnesses.

But Natalie Dyenson, the company’s chief food safety officer, told The Associated Press that the facility has been completely revamped and tested to ensure no contamination remains.

“That facility has literally been rebuilt from the inside out,” Dyenson said in an interview Wednesday.

The U.S. Agriculture Department confirmed that federal inspectors required for operation are on site

The reopening comes even as recent inspections of another Boar’s Head plant in Petersburg, Virginia, documented sanitation problems similar to those that federal health officials said may have contributed to the fatal outbreak.

Records released this week to The Associated Press through a federal Freedom of Information Act request detailed dozens of “noncompliance reports” between July and December 2025. They included numerous instances of dripping condensation, meat residue left on equipment and in drains, and failure to follow the company’s own written listeria testing and monitoring procedures.

“Today’s incident marks the fifth occurrence of this noncompliance in a month,” an inspector wrote on Oct. 25, after finding ham molds “dirty with smeared residue.”

The latest 2025 reports follow previous inspections dating back several years documenting what inspectors called “general filth” at another Boar’s Head site.

Dyenson acknowledged that documentation of continued problems “sounds very disturbing,” but said that the company is working aggressively toward cutting instances of noncompliance at all of its plants to “zero.”

She maintained that specific problems with liverwurst equipment and production, not dried food residue and the other issues, led to the deadly outbreak.

“I know it sounds gross, but from a food safety risk perspective, that dried-on residue has gone through a lethality step” that kills germs, she said.

Dyenson said the company had overhauled the Jarratt plant, replacing floors, drains and air filtration systems and separating production areas for raw and ready-to-eat food. Officials took nearly 12,000 swabs looking for listeria, she said. New management and staff were hired.

Boar’s Head also voluntarily adopted a higher U.S. Department of Agriculture standard of listeria control, one that requires a “kill step” to keep the germ from growing in most finished deli products.

“Have confidence that we’re doing everything we can as quickly as we can,” she said. “But also know that there is this above-and-beyond step that we’ve taken to add that extra layer of protection.”

Food safety advocates said it may take time for consumers to trust the Boar’s Head deli ham now being produced at the Jarratt site.

“It’s not helpful in rebuilding that trust if the inspection reports from Petersburg highlight a deeper food safety cultural problem within the company,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for Consumer Reports, said in an email.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who has been critical of Boar’s Head, said the company “must be held fully accountable for this repeated pattern of jeopardizing food safety through unsanitary conditions.”

Boar’s Head officials refused to appear in person before the Congressional Food Safety Caucus, instead responding to concerns in writing. DeLauro said the invitation remains open.

“In the meantime, I will be demanding answers as to why they feel these plants are suitable for continued operations,” she said in a statement.

Boar’s Head faced multiple lawsuits from people who fell ill or from the families of those who died. Several survivors declined to comment on the latest inspection reports, citing financial settlements with the company that included nondisclosure agreements.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.