Could Liverwurst Take Down Boar’s Head?

Founded in Brooklyn in 1905, Boar’s Head is the industry standard for the modern miracle-horror of processed deli meat, whereby a whole lot of chicken or turkey or pork is macerated into oblivion, injected with a flavor brine, and reconstituted into a shape that is not found in nature. Meat eaters mostly agree that it is a gross and delicious and easy way to make a sandwich — when the system works. But on July 26, Boar’s Head announced a recall of some 207,000 pounds of product due to potential exposure to Listeria monocytogenes at a plant in Virginia, after the Maryland Department of Health found that a sample of Boar’s Head liverwurst tested positive for the bacteria. Four days later, the recall was expanded to include some 7 million additional pounds from the tainted plant — from hot dogs to bacon to something called “hot butt cappy ham.”

By late August, nine people had died and 57 were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which is investigating what is the largest listeriosis outbreak since 2011.

The adage about meat no longer applies to the recalled products of the Boar’s Head Provision Co. After a summer of recalls and deaths from listeria, people really do want to know how their sausages and other processed meats are made.

As food-safety lawyers prepare class-action lawsuits, the next few months for Boar’s Head will involve cleaning up its reputation beyond its closed plant in Virginia — and beyond just liverwurst. “I had a customer come in, he was about 75 years old,” said Paul DiSpirito of Lioni Italian Heroes in Bensonhurst. “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.” DiSpirito claims he has skipped several lunch breaks due to the volume of calls about the meat. “I’m sitting here answering phone calls from all these customers asking about this vendor. It’s bad, because Boar’s Head is New York deli.”

On August 26, records released by the United States Department of Agriculture food-safety inspectors showed that the Virginia plant linked to the outbreak had 69 violations for “noncompliance” over the past year. Mildew was found near the sinks for workers to wash their hands. A “black mold-like substance” was found in coolers. Puddles of water were sitting so long they had “green algal growth.” Puddles of blood were found in a cooler. In June, an inspector noted “small flying gnat like insects flying” around a room whose walls had “heavy meat buildup.” One food-safety attorney representing the family of an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who died after eating tainted liverwurst told USA Today that it was the “worst set of inspection reports I have ever seen.”

“We are deeply sorry,” the company wrote in a statement that underlined that only liverwurst from one plant in Virginia was affected.

For years, Boar’s Head has been known as a ruthless competitor, suing similarly named businesses to protect its reputation and pulling its products from stores that dared to push their house brands over its own. The president of Dietz & Watson, a rival, once described the juggernaut as its “mortal enemies.” This was before an incident in Florida in which Boar’s Head trucks reportedly blocked parking spots and blew air horns while customers were attending a fundraiser for breast cancer where Dietz & Watson did taste tests against Boar’s Head meats.

Boar’s Head now has a CEO from outside the family, but the descendants of founders Frank Brunckhorst and Bruno Bischoff still own the company. They are locked in a yearslong legal battle in federal court. After Brunckhorst’s daughter Barbara died in 2020, her will stipulated that the lion’s share of her stake in the company go to environmental charities and neuroscience research. Bischoff’s grandson claims that Brunckhorst’s shares are actually his. How much the company actually makes is anyone’s guess. Court records suggest annual revenue is north of $1 billion.

Despite the current crisis, the company maintains its fans. A friend who grew up working at a family deli — his winter jacket is a Carhartt with the Boar’s Head branding — sent me a picture of a recent party in Philadelphia. In the photo, cold cuts sat under a custom poster of the Boar’s Head logo, in which the brand’s swine has bloodshot eyes and appears to be foaming at the mouth. “I’d rather get the toxin / than eat Dietz & Watson,” read the caption.

For those slightly less obsessed with deli meat — but still concerned about the “toxin” — food-safety expert Amanda Lathrop recommends vigilance in food prep. “Listeria is ubiquitous, so it is found pretty much everywhere,” said Lathrop, a professor at California Polytechnic State University. “It is this incredible organism that’s really hearty, so it can tolerate really cold temperatures, it can tolerate really high salt contents. It can grow at refrigeration temperature.” Another incredible aspect of listeria? “It can infect the human body by transversing the stomach lining, and it kind of moves from cell to cell,” said Lathrop. “It just really can evade the human’s immune system as well as things like antibiotics.” For most people, listeriosis will just cause uncomfortable but short-term symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, and headaches. “It’s really the elderly folks, people who are immunocompromised, and particularly pregnant women who have the most kind of devastating effects,” said Lathrop.