The popular deli meat company Boar's Head is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as an investigation into a deadly outbreak of listeria food poisoning continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday.
The new recall includes 71 products made between May 10 and July 29 under the Boar's Head and Old Country brand names. It follows an earlier recall of more than 200,000 pounds of sliced deli poultry and meat. The new items include meat intended to be sliced at delis as well as some packaged meat and poultry products sold in stores.
They include liverwurst, ham, beef salami, bologna and other products made at the firm's Jarratt, Virginia, plant.
The recalls are tied to an ongoing outbreak of listeria poisoning that has killed two people and sickened nearly three dozen in 13 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly all of those who fell ill have been hospitalized. Illnesses were reported between late May and mid-July.
The problem was discovered when a liverwurst sample collected by health officials in Maryland tested positive for listeria. Further testing showed that the type of bacteria was the same strain causing illnesses in people.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to immediately and voluntarily expand our recall to include all items produced at the Jarratt facility,” the company said on its website. It has also halted production of ready-to-eat foods at the plant.
The meat was distributed to stores nationwide, as well as to the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama, Agriculture Department officials said.
Consumers who have the recalled products in their homes should not eat them and should discard them or return them to stores for a refund, company officials said. Health officials said refrigerators should be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized to prevent contamination of other foods.
An estimated 1,600 people get listeria food poisoning each year and about 260 die, according to the CDC.
Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for people older than 65, those with weakened immune systems and during pregnacy.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image released by the Food Safety and Inspection Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, shows the product label for Boar's Head Virginia Ham meat, one of 71 products recalled as an investigation into a deadly listeria outbreak. The popular deli meat company is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as the investigation continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (FSIS/USDA via AP)
This image released by the Food Safety and Inspection Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, shows the product label for Boar's Head Virginia Ham meat, one of 71 products recalled as an investigation into a deadly listeria outbreak. The popular deli meat company is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as the investigation continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (FSIS/USDA via AP)
FILE - This 2002 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. Health officials have announced a recall of liverwurst and deli meat products, Friday, July 26, 2024, in connection with a national listeria outbreak that has sickened nearly three dozen people in 13 states. (Elizabeth White/CDC via AP, File)
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's opposition center-right Christian Democratic Union announced Tuesday that it has chosen its leader, Friedrich Merz, to be its candidate for chancellor in next year's national election.
The decision sets the stage for a possible challenge of left-wing Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the federal election scheduled for September 2025.
Germans are looking ahead to next year's vote at a critical time, as the country's struggles to integrate large numbers of refugees and migrants and as the major European economy weakens. Recent extremist attacks have fueled a backlash against migration that is leading to a surge in support for the far right.
The choice was announced at a news conference in Berlin with Merz and Markus Soeder, the leader of the CDU's smaller Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union, who had also been a contender for the role.
Soeder, who is the governor of Bavaria, announced the decision, saying that the chancellor question “is decided. Friedrich Merz is doing it.” He stressed that he fully supported Merz, and that they were united by a common goal to unseat the current government “and get Germany back on track.”
Merz thanked Soeder for his support and said his party, led for many years by former Chancellor Angela Merkel, has the “firm intention of taking over leadership responsibility in this country again.”
An unpopular three-party coalition led by Scholz has governed since 2021.
The coalition, which is made up of Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, suffered losses in elections to the European Parliament earlier this year and in recent German state elections in Thuringia and Saxony.
The 68-year-old Merz was considered the favorite after Soeder failed to get the backing for his candidacy, according to German media reports, and after another contender, North Rhine Westphalia’s state Premier Hendrik Wuest, announced he wouldn’t run.
Currently polls show the Christian Democrats as the strongest party in the country. But Merz himself is not personally very popular. Scholz said during a visit to Kazakhstan that he would welcome a Merz candidacy, the German news agency dpa reported.
Scholz has said he would like to run for chancellor again but his candidacy hasn’t been confirmed by his party.
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz, left, and Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, shake hands at a joint news conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz talks to the media at a joint news conference with Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz, left, talks to the media beside Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, right, at a joint news conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria is pictured at a joint news conference with German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz talks to the media at a joint news conference with Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz, left, and Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, leave a joint news conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz talks to the media at a joint news conference with Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz watches the media at a joint news conference with Markus Soeder, Christian Social Union party leader and state governor of Bavaria, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
