Boar’s Head Shuts Down Virginia Plant Tied to Listeria Deaths

The company said that the site would close indefinitely and that it would permanently stop making liverwurst. Union officials said the plant’s 500 workers would be given severance and offered relocation.

Boar’s Head announced on Friday that it would indefinitely shut down the troubled Virginia deli meat plant that it acknowledged had caused a deadly listeria outbreak, killing nine people and sickening dozens more in 18 states.

The company also said it had identified liverwurst processing as the source of contamination and would permanently discontinue the product.

“Given the seriousness of the outbreak, and the fact that it originated at Jarratt, we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely close this location,” the company said in a statement posted on its website Friday. The shutdown affects about 500 workers in Jarratt, Va., a small rural town whose economic livelihood largely depended on the plant’s business.

Federal inspectors had repeatedly found health and sanitation violations at the plant.

“In response to the inspection records and noncompliance reports at the Jarratt plant, we will not make excuses,” the company said in a statement.

Two years ago, inspectors conducted an extensive review and concluded that conditions at the plant — rife with mold, rust and holes in walls — posed an “imminent threat” to food safety. That finding could have resulted in a warning letter or even a suspension of production there, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not take strict measures and allowed the plant to stay open until this outbreak forced a suspension in production in late July.