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The contaminated meats have been recalled, obviously, but that relies on vendors to actually go through their stock and pull them from shelves. For major supermarkets and businesses they're used to doing that for all sorts of products. But small businesses may not be paying attention nearly as closely.

And that doesn't take into account products that had been purchased by a consumer before the recall, but stored until more recently. I regularly buy things like meat when it is on sale and freeze it for use months later, especially when it's a premium product I otherwise wouldn't get.

The bacteria that causes Listeria is extremely resilient and can survive on surfaces for a long time. There’s one known case of it persisting for 10 years in a meat processing plant. It can survive in cold temperatures and even in salty and acidic environments.

That means it could still be stuck to deli slicers, deli counters, deli fridges, people’s fridges, people’s counters, etc. And it spreads through not just Boar’s Head products directly, but through every product that came in contact with any equipment that came in contact with Boar’s Head products.

This needed more than just a recall. It needed education for consumers and decontamination rules and instructions for delis and grocery stores, followed by thorough surface testing.

I lucked out - the deli I use doesn’t sell any dirty Boar’s Head slop. If they did, I’d probably drop them permanently.

Most likely theyve been sick for a while. Though I don't know much about listeria. That plant should be nuked from orbit