Boar’s Head discontinues former fan favorite after it’s identified as root of deadly listeria outbreak

Boar’s Head liverwurst has lined its last lunchbox.

Boar’s Head announced this past Friday that it will stop making the deli counter’s most controversial cold cut. 

Liverwurst is a victim of the fallout from a listeria outbreak that led to a massive product recall. 

“Our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt (Virginia) facility and was used only for liverwurst,” the company said in a statement.  

“With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst.”

It may be a distasteful moment for the food manufacturer — but the reality is that liverwurst, a once-savored flavor, has fallen out of favor. 

Liverwurst “is probably one of the least popular sandwich options in New York City,” Robert Sietsema of foodie outlet Eater NY wrote in an April essay about his quest to find liverwurst sandwiches in a city famed for its Old World-style deli culture.

“A filling in a sandwich made on rye, pumpernickel or whole wheat, and dressed with mustard and sometimes raw onions, liverwurst was in many kids’ lunch bag rotation 30 years ago, though even then, it seemed oddly old-fashioned.”

The author searched for liverwurst sandwiches at five different Manhattan delis this year. 

“None seemed to have it,” he wrote. He said that “the older sandwich makers at least knew what it was.” 

Liverwurst is — and, in a growing number of examples, was — an emulsified sausage of German origin made from pork liver and other organs mixed with spices. 

Liverwurst was generally affordable for families and, in American culinary tradition, was often sliced into supermarket white-bread sandwiches for a quick boxed lunch. 

Some versions of liverwurst were softer, like a pate, and spread over bread.

Liverwurst was popular enough during World War II to incite anger over rationing.

“Liverwurst caused a minor crisis last week,” Time magazine reported in 1943.

“Rationed at seven points a pound, it lost most of its appeal. Since liverwurst can be kept only a few days, dealers stared moodily at their moldering stocks.”

The publication listed it among top-notch “honest dealer’s meat … steaks, chops, liverwurst and all.”

Liverwurst seemed to enjoy a post-war burst of, if not popularity, then relevancy into the 1980s. 

It was the best of times. 

Now it’s the wurst of times. 

“Every time I eat liverwurst, everyone is always grossed out by it,” one indignant defender of the deli delight posted on Reddit last year.

“I ask the lady at the deli how many people order liverwurst, and she tells me I am literally the only one in the past year to get it,” wrote @spvcebound. 

“What’s with the liverwurst hate?”

Liverwurst remains first for those who can stomach ridicule and minced pig liver. 

“A liverwurst sandwich with mustard is quite possibly the perfect lunch for me,” the same person wrote.