Boar’s Head fired sanitation manager at listeria-laden Virginia plant after he flagged health, safety issues: ‘They took shortcuts’

A former sanitation manager at Boar’s Head’s listeria-ridden Virginia plant claims he was fired last year after he raised red flags over lax health and safety standards at the now-shuttered facility. Terrence Boyce — who has nearly two decades of experience as a supervisor at food plants — was hired in 2023 for a newly created position at the Jarratt, Va., plant amid a food safety audit by federal regulators, Boyce told The Post. “The government found a bunch of deficiencies or deviations and I guess I was brought in as a preventive and a corrective measure,” Boyce said. But when the sanitation veteran began to speak up and recommend certain changes, he lost his job, he claims. “I wrote that ‘management was not committed to safety’ and two or three days later, the plant manager tells me I need to change my investigation,” Boyce alleged. “I said, ‘no.’” Boyce was fired in August of last year after the report about an injured worker. Less than 10 months later, the Jarratt plant was linked to the nationwide listeria outbreak in Boar’s Head products that has been blamed for nine deaths and dozens of hospitalizations. Among the problems Boyce flagged during his eight-month stint at the bug-infested plant was that the water used to clean the facility wasn’t hot enough to “break up grease” from animal fat, he said. Boyce also pushed for stronger cleaning chemicals such as chlorine bleach to be used on the walls, floors and equipment. “The plant was old and kind of dilapidated,” he told The Post. “Some of the piping that runs through the equipment had mold and they didn’t have bleach in their solutions for at least three years.” He specifically pointed a finger at the meat smokehouses – which are similar to walk in freezers. “The process for cleaning the smokehouses was a major problem,” he said, adding that they used a powder solution instead of spraying them down. “They took shortcuts,” Boyce said. Boar’s head did not immediately respond for comment. Boyce said he eventually filed a whistleblower complaint with the Virginia Department of Labor, according to emails he shared with The Post, alleging that Boar’s Head retaliated against him. A July 26, 2024 email from the agency’s whistleblower protection department, which was shared with The Post, confirmed that his complaint is still under review. Boar’s Head closed the plant — which employed around 500 workers — in late July when it recalled more than 7 million pounds of meats and cheeses after a liverwurst sample turned up positive for listeria. The Post reported last week that the company has kept a skeleton crew at the site to clean the plant before possible selling the facility. Safety hazards to workers was also an issue, Boyce told The Post. One sanitation worker suffered a hernia after he moved a vat full of discarded meats, he claimed in the report that eventually contributed to his dismissal. The day crew “left big chunks of meat on the floor but it shouldn’t have been allowed,” Boyce said. Boyce alleged that the government inspectors who found 69 instances of “non-compliance“ at the plant over the past year were “too cozy” with the management there. “There were six USDA officials that I’d seen,” he told The Post, “and some were stricter than others and some were more lenient. It depended on the relationship, I think, with management.” The US Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond for comment. Among the non-compliance violations, one government inspector noted “a rancid smell” in the raw receiving cooler with “ample amounts of blood in puddles on the floor.” Another found, a “black mold-like substance” throughout the holding cooler and on the outside of four steel vats along with one to two inches of meat on June 1. Inspectors noted seeing mold in different places during six visits in total. On June 10, an inspector spotted “approximately 15-20 flies … going in and out of 4 vats of pickle left in the room.” Boyce first reached out to ABC affiliate WRIC in Greensville County, Va. last week after Boar’s Head said it was closing the plant indefinitely. On Sept. 13, Boar’s Head said it would no longer make liverwurst, which was only made at the Jarratt facility. The century-old family owned company said “a specific production process” by which liverwurst is made was the culprit, but it did not disclose what exactly was wrong with the process.