Three people have died, and 43 others have fallen ill due to a listeria outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meats, according to federal food safety officials on Thursday.
The latest death occurred in Virginia, while the other two were in New Jersey and Illinois. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported nine more cases since their last update on July 31. The outbreak began in late May.
On July 30, Boar’s Head recalled 7 million pounds of deli meats after a liverwurst sample in Maryland tested positive for listeria. The recall expanded from an initial one on July 25. New York health officials later confirmed the same listeria strain in another liverwurst sample.
The recall involves over 70 products, including liverwurst, ham, beef salami, and bologna, produced at Boar’s Head’s plant in Jarratt, Virginia. Boar’s Head is now facing two lawsuits over the outbreak, one in Missouri and a class action suit in federal court in New York.
The contaminated meats were sold in stores nationwide and in several countries, including the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama. Consumers are advised not to eat the recalled products and to either throw them away or return them for a refund.
The CDC warns that listeria can survive in the refrigerator, so those who had the recalled meats should thoroughly clean and disinfect their fridge. Each year, about 1,600 people in the U.S. contract listeria food poisoning, and roughly 260 of them die.
Common symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and fatigue, and the infection is especially dangerous for those over 65, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant individuals. Symptoms might not show up until weeks after eating contaminated food.