Listeria Outbreak Difference Between Deli Meat and Cantaloupes

As has been widely reported, Boar’s Head issued a recall in late July for more than 7.2 million pounds of its ready-to-eat liverwurst and some other deli meat products due to concerns about potential listeria contamination.

The latest update is reporting on facility inspection findings by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA records show, “inspectors turned up dozens of violations at a Boar’s Head plant in Virginia now linked to a nationwide recall of deli meats, according to new records released by the department, including mold, mildew and insects repeatedly found throughout the site.”

The CDC has reportedly said, “This is the largest listeriosis outbreak since the 2011 outbreak linked to cantaloupe.” As readers may recall in 2011, a listeria outbreak was linked to cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in Holly, Colorado. The Food and Drug Administration investigation found that the outbreak occurred because the farm brothers changed their packing procedures, used new equipment, and removed an anti-microbial wash.

What makes the Boar’s Head recall unique is that the company is under the jurisdiction of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and not the FDA (here is a link to a helpful jurisdictional chart). This distinction between USDA and FDA is important because the two Agencies operate under different statues and inspection requirements.

The FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs is responsible for conducting facility inspections of all FDA-regulated facilities (medical devices, drugs, food, etc.). It completes routine surveillance inspections (i.e., not a for-cause inspection related to an incident like an outbreak) randomly and sporadically. This means a facility could be inspected once every two years or once every fifteen years.  The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act mandates an inspection frequency of at least once every three years for domestic high-risk facilities and at least once every five years for non-high-risk facilities. It’s not clear if FDA is meeting this goal.

In stark contrast, the USDA-FSIS is required to conduct mandatory and continuous oversight of facilities subject to its jurisdiction. Often, this means a facility cannot operate or release products unless an FSIS inspection has occurred.

In some sense, the current recall and outbreak speak as much to the USDA’s errors in regulated Boar’s Head’s facility as it does to the producer.