# Will anybody want to buy anything from Boar's Head again? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [September 13, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232 "2024-09-13T20:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/101 "2024-09-23T20:42:21Z")
Deitz and Watson products were assembled into charcuterie platters by a third party grocer then the platters were recalled. Likely the cross contamination originated with the third party. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/102 "2024-09-23T20:55:30Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Because I am not convinced the ONE factory only produces ONE product. They didn’t say that but instead that “a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst” was the cause of the contamination. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/103 "2024-09-23T21:03:05Z")
If a local restaurant was shut down for selling rotten chicken would you still go there assuming the burgers are ok? As a consumer I have other choices and I choose not to use that product. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/104 "2024-09-23T21:33:36Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Because I am not convinced the ONE factory only produces ONE product. They dont. But only one product from one of a dozen factories was implicated. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/105 "2024-09-23T21:43:16Z")
Because > **[Bugs, mold and mildew found in Boar's Head plant linked to deadly listeria...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bugs-mold-mildew-inspection-boars-head-plant-listeria/)** > > The CDC says this is the largest listeriosis outbreak since 2011. When the headline says “Bugs, mold and mildew found in Boar’s Head plant linked to deadly listeria outbreak”, i assume there’s a general problem with their attention to detail. Maybe it was a toxic culture at that one plant. (Human culture, that is, not mold and bacterial cultures, although that was clearly true.) Or maybe there are systemic issues with the company. I’ve visited a sausage factory. The owner was a distant cousin of my father’s, and we got the friends and family tour, walking all over the place (but touching nothing). He did ham, sausage, turkey breast, and pastrami. They injected brine into the chunks-o-meat with a thousand little spotless needles. The knives glistened, and he said they were sharpened daily, and each butcher had different preferences. It was spotless. He said that the FDA inspections weren’t nearly as stringent as his standards, because one piece of bad press about infected product would put him out of business. (It was a small local brand.) I’m not thinking the closed faculty looked like that one. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/106 "2024-09-23T21:46:34Z")
Do you think the problem was confined to just one product line and everything else was spotless and meticulously cared for and clean? Or, do you think this just happened to be the thing they got in trouble for first? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/107 "2024-09-23T21:53:24Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Do you think the problem was confined to just one product line and everything else was spotless and meticulously cared for and clean? The problem was limited to one plant, certainly. Will you still eat eggs or cucumbers? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/108 "2024-09-23T23:01:29Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > If a local restaurant was shut down for selling rotten chicken would you still go there assuming the burgers are ok? Nah, it’s more like if one franchise restaurant was shut down for selling rotten chicken, would you not buy a burger from a completely different location. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/109 "2024-09-23T23:23:46Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Nah, it’s more like if one franchise restaurant was shut down for selling rotten chicken, would you not buy a burger from a completely different location. Production plants are not franchises with independent operators. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/110 "2024-09-24T00:38:20Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Nah, it’s more like if one franchise restaurant was shut down for selling rotten chicken, would you not buy a burger from a completely different location. Yep. Believe it or not, my local McDs has been shut down _three_ times for Health code violations. Fist it was the ball pit- okay, that was endemic across the franchises. But next roaches and most recently rats. The locals dont go there. Mind you, that doesnt mean i wont grab a large fries from a different one. McDs are known for being clean. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/111 "2024-09-24T02:07:34Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > … > They dont. But only one product from one of a dozen factories was implicated. Do we know for a fact that liverwurst was or was not produced at other Boar’s Head plants? I know that I do not know. I’m not usually a rush-to-judgement kinda guy. But shuttering a whole plant says the problem was bigger than one line at that plant. And cancelling an entire product line nationwide says either a) that one plant was the only one producing that product, or b) the poor hygiene extends to other plants as well. Or at a minimum, top management is unsure whether good hygiene exists at those other plants making liverwurst. All of this is bigger, much bigger, than e.g. McD’s franchise #12345 in BumFuque Tennessee gave food posioning to 10 teens on a late night drinking binge that may actually have been from too much booze, not bad burgers as the kids claimed it was. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/112 "2024-09-24T02:13:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Do we know for a fact that liverwurst was or was not produced at other Boar’s Head plants? I know that I do not know. Their statement said that liverwurst was only made at that one plant. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/113 "2024-09-24T02:18:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Their statement said that liverwurst was only made at that one plant. Soooo…should we take from that it was the liverwurst (whatever makes that up) that was the problem? Bad enough to close a whole factory? Everything else is fine. No worries. That’s what I do not believe. If their quality control was so bad for the liverwurst why would I want to take chances on anything else they make (regardless of where it was made)? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/114 "2024-09-24T02:22:00Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Soooo…should we take from that it was the liverwurst (whatever makes that up) that was the problem? Bad enough to close a whole factory? I take from that that liverwurst was only made at that plant, and it isn’t worth it to re-tool a line in another plant to make it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/115 "2024-09-24T02:23:38Z")
I think the issue is the plant where it was made had major deficiencies in being clean and Boar’s Head never did anything about it. Why would I think Boar’s Head is doing better anywhere else for any other products? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/116 "2024-09-24T02:32:27Z")
And since we really care about the future more than the past, do they have the corporate culture to fix that everywhere for real, rather than just make a symbolic sacrifice at Jarratt and eyewash the rest? I know that I don’t know. But I have some suspicions. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/117 "2024-09-30T15:18:17Z")
I purposefully don’t invest in food packaging or food preparation businesses for this very reason. Way too many businesses have this type of thing happen to them, basically wiping out an entire years worth of cash flows. Most of them bounce back, and overcome their setbacks, but it puts a big damper on the foward cashflows. BoarsHead will be rebound, but it won’t look pretty for their investors currently or over the next year or so. #Bluebell #Chipotle #Wendys #Cargill #FosterFarms #JackInTheBox #DoleFoods #TacoBell #PilgrimsPride #TropialSmoothieCafe # > **[List of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foodborne_illness_outbreaks_in_the_United_States)** > > In 1999, an estimated 5,000 deaths, 325,000 hospitalizations and 76 million illnesses were caused by foodborne illnesses within the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking outbreaks starting in the 1970s. By 2012, the figures were roughly 130,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/118 "2024-09-30T15:27:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So, dont eat the liverwurst. > [@bobot](#): > > That should be their new motto. [Julia Child should be their spokesperson,](https://www.tiktok.com/@the_starvin_sicilian/video/7171844856040410414?lang=en) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/119 "2024-09-30T19:53:49Z")
I’m surprised to learn that Liverwurst is so popular. I thought I was the only person who ate it, and I don’t very often. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232/120 "2024-09-30T21:34:32Z")
I hear the Boar’s Head liverwurst is to die for. There’s no way I just said that. No possible way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-anybody-want-to-buy-anything-from-boars-head-again/1007232.md?page=7)