Boar’s Head Lawsuit Filed Over Massive July 2024 Deli Meat Listeria Recall [UPDATE]

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Boar’s Head Provisions Co. faces a proposed class action lawsuit after dozens of varieties of cold cuts were recalled in July 2024 due to possible listeria contamination.

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The 24-page Boar’s Head recall lawsuit accuses the deli meat purveyor of deceptively and misleadingly failing to disclose on product packaging that millions of pounds of recalled ham, pork loin, bologna, liverwurst, bacon, franks, brats, sausage and kielbasa contained or may contain Listeria monocytogenes, a resilient bacterium that can cause serious and potentially fatal listeriosis infections, particularly in children and those with weakened immune systems.

Media reports relay that Boar’s Head initially recalled more than 207,000 pounds of meat on July 26 after liverwurst at a store in Maryland tested positive for listeria. The sample was collected amid a multistate investigation into a listeria outbreak linked to sickness in 34 people across 13 states as of July 25, NBC News reported. All but one of the individuals were hospitalized, and two died, NBC stated, adding that health officials said the outbreak most likely stemmed from sliced deli meat.

On July 31, Boar’s Head expanded its recall to include an additional seven million pounds of deli meat and poultry items, tallying 71 products produced between May 10 and July 29 of this year under the Boar’s Head and Old Country Brand names.

Related Reading: List of Boar’s Head Recalled Products – July 2024

The proposed class action lawsuit asserts that consumers nationwide trust Boar’s Head and other manufacturers to sell products that are safe and free from harmful substances. According to the complaint, Boar’s Head has employed a marketing and advertising campaign that makes no mention of the Listeria monocytogenes allegedly contained in the deli meats.

“This omission leads a reasonable consumer to believe they are not purchasing a product with a known bacterium when in fact they are purchasing a product contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” the filing states.

The lawsuit charges that Boar’s Head’s July 2024 recall was entirely insufficient given that a consumer must retain the recalled deli meat they bought in order to be eligible for a refund. For the recall, consumers were urged to “discard any recalled products” or return them to the store where they bought them to be reimbursed, the filing says.

The suit contests that the Boar’s Head recall was designed to reach as few consumers as possible, and benefit even fewer.

“This recall was deliberately designed to preclude the vast majority of consumers from receiving a [refund],” the Boar’s Head lawsuit alleges, accusing the company of knowing full well that any consumer who heard about the recall would be inclined to throw away the deli meats at issue.

Although a healthy person may experience short-term symptoms from listeriosis, such as high fever, headache, stiffness, nausea and diarrhea, the infection can be potentially fatal in children and the elderly, and can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women, the lawsuit stresses. Listeria monocytogenes can also cause sepsis, meningitis, encephalitis or gastroenteritis, and listeria infection comes with a 95 percent hospitalization rate, the filing says.

The complaint states that the recalled Boar’s Head products are “in no way safe for human consumption and are entirely worthless.”

The Boar’s Head recall lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in the United States who bought any of the Boar’s Head products recalled by the company in July 2024.

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