After several deaths and a massive recall, can Boar’s Head save its brand?

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Lately, food recalls have been on the rise—they are more numerous than they’ve been since before the pandemic—but the Boar’s Head recall has been a cut above, at least in terms of the attention it’s received.

Part of the problem for the venerable purveyor of premium-positioned deli meats is that the recall feels like a drawn-out affair. It was announced in July, initially targeting Boar’s Head liverwurst and several other varieties of its deli meats that “may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes,” the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) stated. In subsequent weeks, the Listeria outbreak was linked to nine deaths and scores of hospitalizations across 18 states. The recall grew to include 7 million pounds of meat; multiple lawsuits were filed.  

In August, the release of related USDA documentation served a fresh helping of unappetizing headlines about “bugs, mold, and mildew” at the Boar’s Head plant linked to the outbreak. A spokesperson responded at the time that the company was disinfecting that Jarratt, Virginia, plant, which had been inactive since the recall started; and retraining its workers, pledging that plant would remain closed “until it meets the highest quality and safety standards.”

But this week, Boar’s Head announced that, actually, that plant will be closed indefinitely (affecting around 500 employees, an economic blow to the town); and the company would cease selling liverwurst altogether. It was as if Boeing had responded to the grounding of the 737 Max by simply ending the product line.

In response to an inquiry from Fast Company, Boar’s Head pointed to the lengthy public statement it issued in July, with updates added in August and September. “This is a dark moment in our company’s history,” it says. “But we intend to use this as an opportunity to enhance food safety programs not just for our company, but for the entire industry.” The company said it would hire a chief food safety & quality assurance officer, reporting directly to its president, and establish a “food safety council” made up of “industry-leading food safety experts.”

It’s unclear how that will actually play out—or what this will mean for the larger Boar’s Head brand. The company has been at pains to stress that its other plants and wide variety of other deli meats and various other food products are untainted by the Boar’s Head recall. And the Sarasota, Florida-based company (which is privately held, but reportedly brings in annual revenue of more than $1 billion) has lots of products beyond liverwurst. Dating back to 1905, it’s an extremely familiar brand, built not only because of a steady diet of mouth-watering advertising, but also thanks to seemingly ubiquitous in-store branding that’s made it a staple of many deli counters and grocers—some of which tout the brand’s availability or fend off complaints when it’s replaced or missing.

But it’s exactly that familiarity, which has, no doubt, contributed to the coverage. An episode of the public-radio show 1A earlier this week was hooked to the Boar’s Head recall—but the discussion soon turned the brand into a gateway for enumerating more systemic challenges with regulating the food supply and addressing consumer confidence in regulators and food producers alike. Darin Detwiler, a professor at Northeastern University and food safety expert, suggested that regulators could have acted sooner while also pointing out that Boar’s Head had been the epitome of a credible brand. This was not just for its premium positioning, but because it’s been around, and trusted, for more than a century. It predates modern food regulation, and even The Jungle, the sensational muckraker novel that revolutionized consumer safety. Simply chalking this up as a “dark moment,” Detwiler suggested, seems like an understatement.

Then again, that long history could end up helping Boar’s Head, as food brands have overcome other deadly episodes before. A 1993 E. Coli outbreak that killed four children (one of whom was Detwiler’s) was traced to Jack in the Box restaurants. This was a catastrophe for the company, which paid out millions to settle lawsuits and became a poster child for lax safety standards. But looking back on the episode years later, one marketing and communications executive involved in the chain’s gradual recovery said that the key was not just in communications or hiring an independent food-safety expert (which it did), but in actually following through with real changes to its processes. “To this day, their food-safety standards are more stringent than anyone else in the industry,” this executive said in a 2015 interview. “You can’t just use PR or a heartfelt message.”

Some consumers who actually remember that episode may still be vaguely suspicious of Jack in the Box, but there’s one more factor: the passage of time without further incident. In the short term, Boar’s Head may be able to lean on its existing reputation. But ultimately, it has to wait for the fading of bad news from the headlines—and avoid causing more. Partly that means making sure its processes really do live up to the brand’s carefully prepared image. But ultimately, its the consumers who will decide whether it’s still worth paying extra for the brand over no-name deli ham because they believe it’s better (and safe). If more problems emerge that suggest this isn’t just a liverwurst problem, those shoppers will likely be hungry for alternatives.