Blood puddles, mold, tainted meat, bugs: Boar’s Head inspections are horrifying

Enlarge / A recall notice is posted next to Boar's Head meats that are displayed at a Safeway store on July 31, 2024, in San Rafael, California. (credit: Getty | Justin Sullivan)

Federal inspections found 69 violations—many grisly—at the Boar's Head meat facility at the center of a deadly, nationwide Listeria outbreak that has now killed nine people, sickened and hospitalized a total of 57 across 18 states, and spurred the nationwide recall of more than 7 million pounds of meat.

The Jarratt, Virginia-based facility had repeated problems with mold, water leaks, dirty equipment and rooms, meat debris stuck on walls and equipment, various bugs, and, at one point, puddles of blood on the floor, according to inspection reports from the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Services. The reports were obtained by CBS News through a Freedom of Information Act Request. In all, the reports outline 69 violations just between the dates of August 1, 2023, and August 2, 2024.

The findings in the reports reveal the perfect conditions for the company's meat to become contaminated with the germ behind the deadly outbreak, Listeria monocytogenes. This is a hardy germ that is ubiquitous in the environment, including in soil and water, and it spreads among people via the fecal-oral route. In healthy people, it usually only causes gastrointestinal infections. But for older people, newborns, and the immunocompromised, it can cause a life-threatening invasive infection with a fatality rate of around 17 percent. It's also a significant danger to pregnant people, causing miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, and life-threatening infections in newborns.