Tough questions ahead for Boar’s Head, USDA after deadly Listeria outbreak

am I the only one who's throwing out all my deli meat in the refrigerator the deadly leria outbreak that has claimed the lives of nine people and sickened 57 people and there still may be more that's the scary part people are finally asking a lot of questions the first lawsuit has been filed fourth district Congressman Jennifer mlen is also demanding answers of bores head their plant in Jared Virginia was found to be the source of a deadly leria outbreak due to liver worst their production facility a lot of questions right now surrounding it because of black mold mold on the walls sing water Blood on the floors a little bit of everything that kind of grosses you out over spray meat on equipment that wasn't properly cleaned the plant is shut down for now now apparently uh management says that they're uh cleaning the facility sanitizing the facility and they're hoping to retrain employees before they open again but a lot of people are questioning are they going to open again right especially in that Jarrett plant it's not the only facility that borad has obviously I believe they're based in Florida uh the first lawsuit was filed against them news broke of that yesterday today uh Jennifer McCullen though she actually has some questions she sent a letter off to uh this plant in Greenville County I want to tell you more about what she's asking but I want to give a little perspective too because believe it or not uh my family my mother's mother uh is from Jared Virginia and uh in a lot of the pictures that made the national news of downtown Jared my grandfather's building uh it's right there by the railroad tracks he used it first is kind of a junk store and later he opened a small grocery store there because the grocery store there had burned down uh you know that it it is a tough place to live in the sense that it is uh very inexpensive to live there but there aren't a lot of jobs there is a prison there uh I you know a prison where most of the time that if somebody's going to be put to death in Virginia that's where they end up and the prison and really this borsh head plant uh is the primary employer of people in Jarrett um so I've been through that town a million times you know it it borders on Emporia Rono Rapids North Carolina um it is certainly um an economy that struggles for many reasons and uh you know it it it could be devastating to the people in that Community if the plant doesn't reopen of course nine people are dead you know and you have to look at that as well uh Jennifer mclen uh sent this letter asking uh questions about directly to management uh these questions went to uh the the CEO of the company as well as the plant manager and Jarrett asking about the Flies the gats the cobwebs the green mold uh the meat buildup um it's pretty much when you read the inspection reports you can't understand why this plant hadn't been shut down or something else done uh I looked at the inspection reports and one from uh shortly before the uh deadly source of the leria bacteria was found in their liver worst facility was actually the liver worst processing area uh had been looked at had been uh inspected and found to be uh found to be kind of uh I want to say the word wet but condensation right there's condensation and that seemed to be a problem throughout the entire facility there were uh multiple examples of uh one was uh there was like uh condensation coming from a pipe and the employee kind of wiped it down when the inspector was there but it just immediately filled back with water uh there were other instances where uh water was apparently leaking from these pipes or from the ceiling or from something else and there were fans that were blowing that water blowing that water onto some of the meats that are being processed right or there was the potential that that could happen uh based on the report so most of the time the reports just read corrective action taken whatever that means um and uh but I do have to think now you know will there be more scrutiny on this particular plant do you sometimes wonder of any of your foods safe I mean I got to admit this has scared me um to a big degree uh Jennifer mlen asked uh you know when did management first become aware of leria what process were in place to control the contamination um after the failures that resulted in this outbreak what additional safeguards will be implemented moving forward Why did many of the violations cited by the non-compliance records continue to occur repeatedly over several months in the months leading up to the outbreak were inspectors present at the Jarrett facility at least once per eight hour shift as required by federal food safety regulations and since leria infections can take up to 10 weeks to become app parent what steps did borad take to ensure the public is aware of the ongo risk certainly it's been in the news uh you know but there there are people who don't pay attention to the news that don't read the newspaper don't watch TV uh you know I'm not sure what additional things that the plant could do but there is a great fear associated with this because of course not only do you have to worry about the meat itself that was infected uh you know Bor head I think ended up pulling like 700,000 lbs of meat they basically recalled everything that had been made at that Jarrett facility within some designated time frames you know as a result of that you want to think that hey they're probably not on the shelves but that doesn't speak for what might be in people's refrigerator in a lot of cases the sell by date um is you know still effective so people wouldn't think to throw that away unless they read uh or heard some way um about this recall and then in addition to that you do have to worry about you know your grocery store did they properly clean the equipment that may have cut some of that meat that was infected um there's a lot of questions uh in addition to Jennifer M mclen questioning some of this action another us uh senator in this case Richard Blumenthal a Democrat out of Connecticut is actually asking for a federal probe into the leria outbreak at this Jarrett Virginia plant uh saying in in quote the outbreak of leria and bores Head meat products should have been caught could have been stopped by the US Department of Agriculture and he said that he wants an investigation as to why those LAX inspection procedures cause these deaths and sicknesses this is the according to the CDC the Centers for Disease Control and prevention this is the largest leria Outbreak on record since 2011 the last one was due to contaminated cantaloupe as fruits veggies things of that nature um can be a source of leria uh the Jarrett plan of course is shut down temporarily as I said they the plant has said the plant leadership has said that they won't reopen until people are reach trained time will tell if that plant reopens at all and also what kind of impact this has as a whole to the Bor head brand which has been a brand that people have thought very highly of for a very long time but the impact of lawsuits again the first one filed this week um Against borad Time Will Tell in the meantime however somehow we need to feel safer about our food and I'm not sure how that's going to happen