The Listeria Uprising:
Have you ever had a fresh slice of deli meat, perhaps with some cheese and bread? After you eat it, you suddenly feel nauseous, as if you got food poisoning. You suddenly feel a pounding headache and increased muscle aches. These symptoms could’ve been caused by listeria, a highly contagious bacteria that can be sometimes fatally harmful to everyone involved.
On Jul. 19, 2024, a group of unnamed people who worked for the epidemiology laboratory researched the increasing amount of listeria cases. Deli meats and other contaminated food were the main cause of the disease.
Listeria is a bacteria that’s been around for 100 years, first discovered in 1921. Even then, it was extremely harmful and caused a lot of fatalities. This hasn’t been a problem in a long time due to the fact that the contamination rate wavered for a while.
However, due to recent outbreaks of listeria, its contamination rate is rising again. It has contaminated a lot of things because it spreads easily from person to person.
In total, there have been 59 documented cases, 59 hospitalizations, and 10 deaths as of September 2024.
Boar’s Head:
Liverwurst is a seasoned sausage made of liver and pork. Boar’s Head is a popular liverwurst company that has been documented to have been contaminated with listeria on some of its products. Listeria spreads quickly and easily, so it’s contaminated more than just the liverwurst.
Boar’s Head was the source of the outbreak of listeria since they used deli equipment to slice their meat. Listeria can easily spread through deli meat equipment, surfaces, hands, and foods. Boars Head would sell products that were sometimes even sliced at the deli, which is where contamination of deli equipment, hands, and clothes come into contact with Listeria.
Eventually, Boar’s Head did recall all their food products, even their prepackaged deli meats.
How to make Listeria less prone in your area:
There are a couple of ways to stay away from Listeria, such as routine refrigerator checks and cleaning out your refrigerator. Before eating, it’s important to warm up food to around 165 degrees Fahrenheit because it kills listeria and other harmful bacteria on it.
Throw out any expired or recalled deli meat to prevent the food from contaminating other foods in your fridge.
If you feel like throwing out expired food isn’t enough, deep clean your fridge.
Listeria may be highly contagious, but there are various measures you can take to make sure you don’t get it. If you are unsure about any food, make sure to take highly precautionary measures.
