HARRISBURG, Pa. — Amid the nation’s worst listeria outbreak in over a decade, more Pennsylvanians are paying attention to where their deli meat is coming from.
“You want to know where your food is coming from and what is happening with it," said Andrea Inners, who was grocery shopping in York Township.
Boar's Head has permanently discontinued liverwurst production after 207,000 lbs. of product was tied to a deadly listeria outbreak. The outbreak was traced back to a Boar's Head facility in Virginia.
To date, the outbreak has led to more than 50 hospitalizations and nine deaths across 18 states.
Inners said she doesn't buy Boar’s Head deli meat, but said the recall makes her wary about where her food comes from.
“The meat is questionable, so I’d probably like to shop at a butcher shop more often and know that it’s coming from an actual farm," said Inners.
At the Pennsylvania Bureau of Food Safety, 15 scientists are working relentlessly to test the quality of food that shows up at their lab in Susquehanna Township.
“There have been a lot of FDA product recalls that required investigation on our end, and then there’s normal regulatory testing. So, these labs are always busy," said Shannon Powers with the Department of Agriculture.
Powers said multiple agencies work together to investigate food safety concerns, including the FDA. The lab typically investigates salmonella, E. coli, and listeria cases in Pennsylvania-made products.
She said any signs of food-borne illnesses automatically trigger an investigation from its rapid response team.
“Our food safety inspectors will take the product samples and bring them back to the lab for testing," said Powers. "And the testing is whatever is appropriate to weed out and identify the source.”
Powers added that the lab works with the FDA to ensure any food safety issues are reported to consumers.
“Our labs communicate back and forth with the FDA to see what the product was, then we would collect samples and do the testing here if it was a Pennsylvania-based product.”