In recent years, the safety and quality of our food supply have become increasingly concerning. From the widespread contamination of various food items with harmful bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella to the discovery of unexpected toxins such as lead in cinnamon and arsenic in applesauce, the risks associated with food consumption have grown.

High-profile outbreaks, like the recent Boar’s Head Listeria incident, which resulted in 9 deaths, have further underscored the importance of staying informed about food safety issues.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest events in food processing that might still be affecting your family in 2024 and what foods and food brands you should avoid. But first, let’s see just how the failure at Boar’s Head played out and how we can prevent this from happening in the future.

Virginia Boar’s Head Facility Shuts Down Permanently After Listeria Outbreak

Boar’s Head corporate plant managers, despite repeated warnings from their on-site, local sanitation managers, failed to prioritize the implementation of government inspector-recommended safety measures, which resulted in a deadly listeria outbreak.

This negligence created an environment ripe for contamination, ultimately culminating in a devastating outbreak that left 9 people dead and 57 more seriously ill across the nation, according to the CDC.

The outbreak was peculiar to the Hammond, Virginia, facility because it was the sole processor of liverwurst. However, due to faulty procedures and decision making, as well as a general unwillingness of the corporate managers to address repeated violations issued by the federal government and the USDA, the situation was too dire to correct at that point, according to Terrence Boyd, who worked there as the first on-site sanitation manager.

Terrence said that managers were not exactly trying to listen to his recommendations, which coincides with another reality regarding the lack of leadership in corporate management positions. Another aspect of the Boar’s Head deli meat problem is that, while you may not eat liverwurst yourself, the listeria in fact did spread to other deli meats and foods due to the internal processes of the plant, which affected consumers nonetheless.

It is quite typical of people from the corporate office and higher-ups to deny the information from their subordinates at local sites. My experience working in corporate America taught me that you could have relevant, insightful, and useful information from direct, everyday experience that corporate managers would shrug off, probably because it revealed their incompetence and lack of awareness on the things that actually matter.

Popular Cinnamon Brands that You May Prefer to Avoid Due to Lead Contamination

Cinnamon is a spice associated with autumn, egg nog, lattes, and late 90’s exotic dancer names. But it’s also a giant harborer of lead, apparently. Yikes. You basically have better odds at winning the cinnamon lead roulette than the lottery because about 33% of all the cinnamon tested recently contained more than the daily allowable consumption of lead in the State of New York, or 1 ppm (part per million).

These brands include:

• Paras Cinnamon Powder, 3.52 ppm
• EGN Cinnamon Powder, 2.91 ppm
• Mimi’s Products Ground Cinnamon, 2.03 ppm
• Bowl & Basket Ground Cinnamon, 1.82 ppm
• Rani Brand Ground Cinnamon, 1.39 ppm
• Zara Foods Cinnamon Powder, 1.27 ppm
• Three Rivers Cinnamon Stick Powder, 1.26 ppm
• Yu Yee Brand Five Spice Powder, 1.25 ppm
• BaliLiFeng Five Spice Powder, 1.15 ppm
• Spicy King Five Spices Powder, 1.05 ppm
• Badia Cinnamon Powder, 1.03 ppm
• Deep Cinnamon Powder, 1.02 ppm

However, even well-known brands like McCormick, Kirkland Signature, Trader Joe’s Organic Cinnamon, and Great Value Cinnamon at Walmart have levels of lead in them that limit your practical and safe personal consumption down to a mere 1/4 teaspoon.

Some of the “safe” brands are considered to be 365 Whole Foods Organic and a few others, like Morton and Bassett Organic Cinnamon and Sadif 7 Spice.

Slow Down, Baby. This Apple Juice is Not For Kids (or Anyone)

As if worrying about harmful pesticide exposure from RoundUp in vegetables and fruits or the still-not-completely known effects of GMO (genetically modified) corn weren’t bad enough, now you’ve got to be on guard to immediately grab that 3 oz. applesauce or juice cup out of your child’s hands before that fateful spoon or straw even gets up to their mouth. Is nothing sacred any more?

As the logical sequitur to the cinnamon debacle, some applesauce also contained the lead issue from cinnamon being included in the recipe, which led to the FDA recommending consumers to avoid WanaBana cinnamon puree and applesauce altogether in late 2023.

But wait, there’s more. Arsenic-more.

Walmart Great Value apple juice and Martinelli’s Apple Cider were also recalled after breaking the allowable threshold for arsenic in 2024, leading many of us to question, “Is anything safe to eat any more?”

Large amounts of arsenic are often associated with industrial and agricultural poisoning and are potentially carcinogenic with repeated exposure. Arsenic accumulation is also experienced by people who regularly use tobacco. It’s not just a long-term risk factor, as acute exposure can cause other problems with immediate health.

The Problems With Modern Food Production and Supply Chain in America is Nothing to Waffle On About

If you’re like me, you might be starting to wonder just why all these seemingly preventable problems are occurring, like the recent recall of 7300 boxes of Utah company Kodiak Cakes LLC’s waffles due to plastic in the food, the consumption of which could cause adverse health events.

The meat and food production and processing capacity of the United States itself has indeed become more concentrated in fewer hands over the past 50 years. This trend has been driven by factors such as mergers, acquisitions, and economic globalization.

The consolidation of the meat industry has several potential negative consequences:

• Reduced Innovation: When fewer companies control a larger portion of the market, there can be less incentive for innovation. This is because dominant players may prioritize maintaining their existing market share over investing in new technologies or processes. Complacency starts to become the norm.
• Reactive Approach: A concentrated industry may be more likely to adopt a reactive approach to food safety and quality issues, rather than a proactive one. This means that companies may wait for problems to arise before taking action, rather than investing in preventive measures.
• Negative Impact on Consumers: This consolidation can ultimately negatively impact consumers in several ways. For example, it may lead to higher prices, reduced consumer choice, and increased vulnerability to foodborne illnesses.

Various aspects of market and industry consolidation are not always a bad thing, but they’re certainly not always a good thing, either, as we’ve just seen with these examples.

Conclusion: Is It Safe to Eat Yet?

Boar’s Head may be a hard pass for a while depending on who you are, although they may claim to have stopped the outbreak. Still, a company that chooses to overlook people that work for them who have direct and valuable feedback because they aren’t senior enough in the corporate hierarchy demonstrates Boar’s Head is lacking in more than just sanitation methods for its meat processing and production.

Just another case of being pig-headed, I suppose.

It’s quite simply crazy to know that we live in a world where you have a cinnamon limit before you must be cut off, or there could be dangerous consequences for your health. Just realize that some day you might have to don lab gear yourself and inspect that innocuous container of applesauce at your kid’s school in the lunch line before the cafeteria staff sets it on their tray.