Deadly List Explosions at Boar's Head: What Was Hiding in Plain Sight

Filthy conditions, aging equipment and haphazard cleaning at the Jarratt, Va., plant may have made some of its products microbial time bombs waiting to explode. It appears that years of ignored warnings and seemingly minor infractions snowballed into a deadly listeria outbreak that has left many people across the nation reeling.

Investigations have uncovered a disturbing pattern of inadequate cleaning procedures, leading to bacterial buildup that compromised the safety of the company's products. Furthermore, equipment that was reportedly years past its prime likely contributed to the contamination, given the inevitability of mechanical failure.

More concerning is the suggestion that the company's internal warnings about increasing bacterial levels were initially neglected, then dismissed as relatively inconsequential. In reality, these were warning signs foreshadowing the looming crisis, revealing that bacterial levels capable of listeria growth may have existed at the facility for months or years.

Plant records and interviewing former workhands provide insight into the chaotic state inside the Jarratt plant, rife with systemic failures and seemingly run amok. Each detail gives the overall picture that executives at the company need to come under tighter scrutiny for prioritizing efficiency and quick fixes over compliance with even standard preventative measures.

Internal emails passed around to key stakeholders during these many warnings expose inconsistencies between working policies at the plant. Emails indicate maintenance, safety checks or changes in food safety protocol as they're implemented at Boar's Head are underdeveloped in an operational climate concerned on upping manufacturing numbers.

An ex-employee corroborates a general attitude surrounding procedural issues 'We were afraid of alerting QA', to this person, we'll refer to him as John, they'd let workers, push everything under carpet because in making them work faster & hit targets plant management might have also struck fear down through regular workers by the ways that they've controlled up to worker personal circumstances.' Their testimony starkly reveal that there was ongoing pressure & perhaps not enough manpower.