What You Need To Know about the Multi-State Listeria Outbreak Linked to Deli Meat
What precautions should you take?
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Update: Since the original publication of this article on July 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on July 30 that it is recalling an additional seven million pounds of Boar’s Head and Old Country brand ready-to-eat products from a plant in Jarratt, Virginia. The original recall pulled 200,000 pounds of product from the market. The new recall includes 71 products, including bologna, liverwurst, beef salami and more, produced between May 10 and July 29. See a full list of the newly recalled products here. If you find recalled products in your home, discard them immediately or return them to their place of purchase. Thoroughly clean refrigerators and any other surfaces that have come in contact with recalled meat. Call Boar’s Head customer service at 1-800-352-6277 with any questions about the recall. Those with food safety questions should contact the USDA at 888-674-6854.
Deli meat sandwiches are a summer picnic staple, but approach them with caution right now. A Listeria outbreak likely linked to meats sliced at deli counters has caused two deaths and 28 illnesses requiring hospitalization across 12 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an investigation notice posted online late last week.
The good news: Packaged deli meats have not been implicated in the outbreak.
States in which people have been sickened include Georgia (two people), Illinois (one person), Maryland (six people), Massachusetts (two people), Minnesota (one person), Missouri (two people), New Jersey (two people), New York (seven people), North Carolina (one person), Pennsylvania (one person), Virginia (two people) and Wisconsin (one person). The first incident in the outbreak was recorded on May 29 and the most recent one occurred on July 5.
Of the two deaths that have been reported, one was in Illinois and the other in New Jersey.
Because people can experience and recover from Listeria without seeking out medical care or testing and because it may take up to three to four weeks to determine if a person’s illness is linked to the outbreak, the CDC believes the number of people sickened in the outbreak may be higher than reported.
“Many people in this outbreak are reporting eating meats that they had sliced at deli counters,” the CDC said in the notice, dated July 19, 2024.
While investigators, including state and local health officials, are still interviewing people affected by the outbreak and collecting data about what they consumed in the month before they became ill, 16 of the 18 people interviewed — or 89 percent — say they ate meats sliced at supermarket or grocery store delis. The most common meats those sickened reported eating before falling ill were deli-sliced turkey, liverwurst and ham.
Listeria can spread between surfaces, equipment, hands and food at deli counters, the CDC warns. Sequencing has determined that the bacteria from the samples of those sickened are closely related — indicating that they were affected by the same outbreak.
Although Listeria germs on deli meats generally withstand refrigeration and continue to grow, they can be killed if a product is heated to a high enough internal temperature (165 degrees Fahrenheit or until it is “steaming hot”).
Consequently, those most at risk of developing a serious illness after being infected with Listeria — people who are pregnant, age 65 and older or have weakened immune systems — are advised to avoid eating meats sliced at the deli counter unless they heat it to 165 degrees Fahrenheit and then let it cool. (While those who don’t fall into these vulnerable categories can become infected by Listeria, they are considerably less at risk of becoming seriously sickened by it.)
Those vulnerable to serious illness should also clean surfaces that may have come into contact with sliced deli meats (refrigerators, containers, counters, etc.). If they develop symptoms including fever, muscle aches and fatigue as well as a headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance or seizures, they are urged to contact their medical provider immediately.
“Symptoms usually start within 2 weeks after eating food contaminated with Listeria, but may start as early as the same day or as late as 10 weeks after,” the CDC says.
More information about the outbreak can be found here.
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