In a concerted program of damage control, Boar’s Head will appoint a new Chief Food Safety and Quality Assurance Officer reporting directly to the company president. The company will also establish the Boar’s Head Food Safety Council. Members will include Dr. David Acheson, previously an Associate Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration responsible for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; Dr. Mindy Brashears, formerly USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety and Dr. Martin Widman a professor of food safety at Cornell University. Frank Yiannas formerly Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy at the FDA will round out the Council.
In a statement announcing the appointments the Company stated, “We remain steadfast in our commitment to our customers and to the safety and quality of our products.” The company intends to introduce improved standards and to learn from the Listeria outbreak. The Jarratt, VA facility responsible for the outbreak will be closed indefinitely and may even be demolished.
The action taken by Boar’s Head is perhaps too little and too late to save the image of the brand and possibly ownership of the company. Boar’s Head will face extensive litigation with the possibility of both direct and punitive damages as a result of the extensive outbreak with nine fatalities.
The company stated in response to severe criticism in mainstream and social media, “It’s a dark moment in our company’s history but we intend to use this as an opportunity to enhance food safety programs not just for our company but for the entire industry.”
In a strange and questionable statement, the company noted that it had “identified the root cause of the contamination as the specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst.” This is fallacious. Listeria is widely distributed in plants that have been neglected and especially those with a history of deviations from accepted hygiene and production processes extending back for many years. The Jarratt plant accumulated a record of insect infestation, structural defects, mold growth, rusty equipment and meat fragments on floors, walls and work surfaces. This represents more than a liverwurst problem.
The appointment of the Boar’s Head Food Safety Council is commendable but an after-the-effect reaction. It remains to be seen whether the guidance and suggestions of the eminent scientists and practitioners selected will make any impact on management. Despite recent contrition, where were the C-suite denizens they when they abrogated their responsibilities to incompetent managers who ignored the safety of consumers. It remains to be seen whether the Food Safety Council is an exercise in window dressing or is a last ditch effort to rehabilitate the brand and continuation of the company under current ownership.
On reflection and in the light of more recent revellations including closure of the Jarratt plant it is doubtful whether any panel will achieve anything practical and there may be a downside to involvement,irrespective on how much Boar's Head pays, since it offers the prospect of erosion of reputation through association.