Fresh Take: Behind The Disturbing Allegations At Boar’s Head

The Boar’s Head saga continues.

My latest investigation into the company is now live. The details are disturbing at times, but I’m glad to keep filling in the gaps of what it’s allegedly been like for some to work for Boar’s Head.

America’s largest deli meat brand has been hit with several lawsuits over the past few years that allege sexual harassment as well as racial and disability discrimination at multiple facilities run by the Sarasota, Florida-based company.

At a distribution warehouse for Boar’s Head in Groveport, Ohio, for example, one 2019 lawsuit alleged severe racial discrimination and a culture in which Black employees were frequently passed over for promotions. Another from that year described a workplace where managers routinely yell at their employees and conversations often focus on sex—including where coworkers could have sex in the office, and even sex with animals.

Meanwhile, at a processing plant in Arkansas, two disabled women alleged Boar’s Head fired them while they were recuperating at the hospital, leaving them without health insurance or a way to pay their medical bills.

Boar’s Head calls the claims “unsubstantiated allegations.” Out of Boar’s Head’s pool of a few thousand employees, these cases over the past five years are notable, as the details they allege are particularly startling.

More to come here.

I hope you enjoy a relaxing fall weekend!

— Chloe Sorvino, Staff Writer

Order my book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat, out now from Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books.

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The Feed

Boar’s Head Has Faced Multiple Lawsuits Claiming Sexual Harassment And Racial Discrimination

Workplace safety issues and vulgar office behavior—including masturbation and talk of bestiality—are linked to the company’s facilities in Ohio and Arkansas, according to allegations by former employees.

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Field Notes

I’m extremely into the newly reopened Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn, which has a Tex-Mex accented menu and serves homemade ice cream sundaes 24 hours a day. These chicken verde enchiladas became an instant classic for me.

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Chloe Sorvino leads coverage of food and agriculture as a staff writer on the enterprise team at Forbes. Her book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat, published on December 6, 2022, with Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. Her nearly nine years of reporting at Forbes has brought her to In-N-Out Burger’s secret test kitchen, drought-ridden farms in California’s Central Valley, burnt-out national forests logged by a timber billionaire, a century-old slaughterhouse in Omaha and even a chocolate croissant factory designed like a medieval castle in northern France.