After Deadly Boar's Head Listeria Outbreak, USDA Gets Tougher In 2025

After a year of one food safety recall after another, the Agriculture Department is implementing new changes this month aimed at preventing outbreaks of Listeria monocytogenes, one of the most deadly of foodborne pathogens, before people get sick and die.

Ten people died and nearly 60 were hospitalized in a listeria outbreak last summer that was traced to a plant in Jarratt, Virginia, that produced Boar’s Head deli meats.

USDA inspectors had documented dozens of violations at the Virginia plant since 2022 and warned the conditions posed an “imminent threat” to public health, according to agency records, first obtained by CBS News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Boar’s Head recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats potentially contaminated with listeria but did nothing to correct the problems inspectors had documented, which included live and dead bugs; mold, mildew and algae growth; and multiple instances of blood puddled on the floor, according to the records.

The agency’s loose oversight and failure to hold Boar’s Head accountable for chronically unsanitary conditions had deadly consequences for 88-year-old Gunter “Garshon” Morgenstein, a German-born Holocaust survivor who died of a brain infection linked to bacteria found in liverwurst produced at the plant.

Morgenstein was hospitalized on July 8, eventually becoming so sick that doctors said he suffered permanent brain damage and was unlikely to recover. Family members withdrew life support, his son said. Morgenstein’s family has hired a lawyer, Houston-based Ron Simon.

“It’s really just a senseless accident and tragedy for something that just should not have ever happened,” his son told The Associated Press. “He still had many good years left.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) asked USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong to launch an internal investigation into the agency’s “abject failure to protect consumers against fatally contaminated Boar’s Head products.”

“The Virginia plant should have been shut down years ago before people got sick or died from listeria,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “The IG investigation is a vital first step to assure accountability and prevent such deadly mistakes from happening again.”

• More: What Inspectors Found At Boar’s Head Plant Linked To Listeria Outbreak That Killed 10

Multiple other recalls last year were issued for potential listeria contamination, among them Oklahoma-based BrucePac’s recall of more than 11 million pounds of meat and poultry products sold at retail stores nationwide and distributed to schools and other institutions. Some 75 products sold at retail stores under various labels were included in the massive recall.

What The USDA Is Doing Differently

Although the inspector general’s internal investigation is still in progress, the first phases of the USDA’s “prevention first” strategy take effect this month. In general, the agency is updating instructions and training for food safety inspectors, and updating its science-based algorithm to identify high-risk facilities.

In one big change, the Food Safety and Inspection Service is adding broader listeria species testing to all samples of ready-to-eat products to include surface samples. The agency currently tests for listeria, but adding more species to its regulatory framework will help regulators measure the effectiveness of the sanitation program.

Also, the FSIS will consult with the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods regarding policy changes and is recruiting members with specific expertise in listeria to evaluate the agency’s regulatory approach to this issue.

Listeria infections are caused by a hardy type of bacteria found in soil, water and animal feces, and it can survive and even thrive during refrigeration.

An estimated 1,600 people get listeria food poisoning each year and about 260 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections can be hard to pinpoint because symptoms may occur quickly — or up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food.

The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those who are pregnant or those with weakened immune systems. Even in healthy people, a listeria infection can cause symptoms such as high fever, headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Source Tracing Has Improved

Food makes Americans sick at a rate of about 48 million foodborne illnesses a year with little progress in controlling common infections such as listeriosis, salmonellosis and shigellosis, according to a 2023 report from the CDC.

The agency emphasized that tracking and reducing foodborne illnesses is a complex issue, and the rise in infections could be attributed to better detection methods.

As Patch reported in July, Keith Schneider, a professor of food safety at the University of Florida who wasn’t involved in producing the CDC report, makes the case that it’s the latter.

“I don’t completely agree we’re failing at food safety,” he told Patch.

Whole genome sequencing and other epidemiological advances have made it possible to isolate the source of foodborne illness outbreaks to a single field and its possible exposure to untreated livestock manure, or to an individual who may have been ill and shed the bacteria.

Genetic changes that occur as the bacteria pass from one organism to another help scientists understand bacterial strains can change, including by becoming more dangerous or deadly, because of it.

“The old methods were limited. With our ability to — we call it ‘see inside a tomato’ — we can find things we weren’t able to before,” Schneider said.

That alone can account for increases in the number of foodborne illnesses reported to public health officials, Schneider said.

“I don’t necessarily things are worse. We could be doing better. We have the rules in place to better address where we were in the 1900s and [Upton] Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle,’” he said. “We are much cleaner and much safer. We are producing safer food and better at identifying outbreaks.”

Food can be exposed to pathogens at various points along the production chain, whether pre-harvest or during post-harvest from the packing house to the grocery store, where customers may leave their germs behind on food, Schneider said.

“How many times have you picked up a tomato, decided you don’t like it, and picked up another?” he said. “Is it the grocer’s fault that people don’t wash their hands?”

In many cases, changes in consumer behavior can greatly reduce the risk of food poisoning, he said, noting, “No one should get sick from chicken or hamburger if it’s cooked properly.”

Foodborne illnesses that aren’t tied to an outbreak typically result from mistakes made while cooking, such as undercooking meat or chopping lettuce and the same cutting board used to cut meat, or leaving leftovers at room temperature for too long, Schneider said.

“People do make mistakes. We have 330 million people eating three times a day 365 days a year,” he said.

The Problem With Lettuce

Lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers and other produce were also recalled in 2024 because of listeria concerns as well as Escherichia coli contamination.

It is more difficult for consumers to protect themselves from E. coli in lettuce and other foods that are consumed raw. Studies show washing lettuce before eating doesn’t significantly reduce the bacteria.

The Food and Drug Administration has regulatory authority, but its rules lack the teeth to make a meaningful difference, according to the CDC study.

In 2012, Congress directed the FDA to develop standards for irrigation water sprayed on crops. The first rule was issued in 2015 and included enforceable periodic testing, but a revised rule proposed in 2022 gave farms the option of whether to include tests in their “water assessments.”

Some food safety issues are inherent in outdoor food production and aren’t a reflection of how farmers produce or retailers handle the food, the University of Florida’s Schneider previously told Patch.

“There’s no way to hermetically seal the great outdoors,” Schneider said. “Insects, animals and birds all have access. Nature can be cruel. Food is exposed to specific pathogens while it’s being produced.”

Though more of a public health threat than a food safety crisis, the most prominent example of the environmental spread of dangerous pathogens is the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak. Bird flu has spread from wild birds to commercial poultry flocks, dairy herds, other animal populations and to people.

In two of the human cases, the bird flu virus mutated. One of those patients, a person in Louisiana with a severe infection died, becoming the first person in the United States to die of the illness. Authorities said the person was exposed to the virus by a backyard poultry flock, but it’s unclear how the second person, a teenager from Canada, contracted bird flu.

Health officials previously warned against consuming raw milk and some unpasteurized cheeses. That warning came after a child in California who consumed raw milk from a batch that tested positive for bird flu. Earlier, food safety officials said particles of the H5N1 avian influenza virus were later found in milk sold at grocery stores.

• More: Bird Flu Mutations In Humans Spark Pandemic Worries: What To Know

Last month, the Agriculture Department greatly expanded testing of the nation’s unpasteurized milk supply for bird flu with a federal order aimed at increasing officials’ understanding of the H5N1 outbreak.

The federal order requires farmers and dairy processors to provide raw milk samples if regulators request them. This requirement applies to any entity that handles bulk milk — from the farm where it’s produced through transportation to various facilities until it arrives at a processing plant for pasteurization.

• More: Feds Get Tougher On Bird Flu In Milk: What To Know