Boar’s Head’s recent listeria outbreak resulted in over 7 million pounds of recalled deli meat, 57 hospitalizations, and 9 deaths.The scope of this recall underscores a broader issue plaguing the food production industry: an alarming increase in food safety incidents. In fiscal 2024 alone, there were 2,182 recall events spanning food, medication, and essential health equipment.
This comes out to nearly 6 recalls per day which begs the question, why have there been so many outbreaks?
The rise of ready-to-eat foods and the increasing complexity of the food supply chain undoubtedly have contributed. Modern production lines, global sourcing, and razor-thin operational margins create environments where any misstep can result in disaster
But there’s an elephant in the room that has been under-reported and barely addressed: the entrenched light-industrial staffing industry.
It’s no secret that a food production facility’s top safety asset is its workforce. Safety and hygiene protocols are only as airtight as the workers that must religiously follow them.
Two factors are at play here:
Variable #1: Sanitation and Hygiene Protocols: The quality, comprehensiveness, and clarity of the safety protocols and hygiene guidelines provided to workers are crucial. These guidelines form the foundation of food safety practices in any production facility.
Variable #2: Workers' Ability to Implement Guidelines: This is where experience in a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) facility becomes critical. Workers who have previously worked in GMP environments are more likely to understand the importance of strict adherence to sanitation protocols and have the practical skills to implement them effectively.
With guidelines only being as effective as those abiding by them, #2 can render #1 completely ineffective. This means that, among the factors under the direct control of the food production facility, scrutinizing the composition of its workforce is the most impactful way to reduce the risk of widespread contamination. These facilities largely rely on light industrial staffing firms to fill roles across food production and packaging. A worker might find themselves in a Boar’s Head facility by:
Leaving a job of several years as a forklift operator
Walking into a staffing office with a paper resume in search of a job
Staffing agency knows nothing about the candidate but is incentivized to send them to the first position available
Worker receives a call from the agency to show up at Boar’s Head the following day
A forklift operator with zero experience in a hygienic work environment is packing liverwurst the following day
Between the five steps above, a breakdown occurred when the staffing agency had no understanding of the worker’s skills or experience. The agency was operating with limited information; a complete black box. Combined with their misaligned incentives (pumping in new workers as fast as possible), an excellent forklift operator became an active risk to a food production plant.
Luckily, the fix is simple: build a staffing company with insanely detailed and motivated employees, then equip them with the super powers of an AI driven recruitment platform. It allows Traba to achieve complete visibility into the skills, experiences, and motivations of every worker. Ultimately, we solve the matching problem that traditional, black-box agencies will be infected with forever. Then, food production facilities can focus on hygiene protocols with confidence that they will be implemented, full-stop.
