Exactly a year after the brand's historically large lunch meat recall comes a report about an issue with another mainstream product.
FDA: Boar’s Head Deli Brand Has Initiated Another Grocery Recall, This Time Affecting One State
Published on Jul. 12, 2025
It was July 2024 when the first of a series of reports emerged to reveal that Boar’s Head brand deli meat was being recalled across the country for what, by August, would become a reported total of 7.2 million pounds. The reason for the recall was concern of listeria contamination, and a subsequent NPR report suggested one contributing factor may have been what health officials discovered and cited as “inadequate sanitation” conditions at a main production facility.
Now, a year on, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published a report sent out late Friday revealing that another Boar’s Head product is under recall—this time, cheese.
The FDA states that on July 2, 2025, a recall was issued on 780 eight-ounce packages of Boar’s Head smoked Gouda that, the FDA reports, had been distributed to the state of Florida. The reason for the recall is listed as “mislabeling,” but at press time it’s unclear what this means.
There’s a range of possibilities for the implications. As examples, one 2016 Food Dive report said in some cases, imported Italian cheese and olive oil had been adulterated with subpar ingredients that weren’t declared on the label. Earlier this week, the parent company for Ritz crackers announced mislabeling that in error had swapped cheese and peanut butter sandwich snacks, causing a critical food allergy risk for some consumers. Also, in June, one Facebook user took to the platform to report they believed their cheese, labeled as cheddar, was mozzarella.
The main menu of Boar’s Head’s main homepage offers a link to their extensive page addressing food safety and quality practices. Product information on their smoked Gouda does not appear to specify ingredients.
It appears the brand’s eight-ounce smoked Gouda product is sold under their “Specialty Cheese” line in solid round wheels. Other product details listed by the FDA are as follows:
- UPC number: 0 42421-50006 6
- Distributed by Brunckhorst Co., New York, NY 11206
The FDA notes it has not yet assigned a recall classification to indicate the severity of health risk to consumers. There appears to be no recall announcement on Boar’s Head site, and the FDA notes no press release was issued but that the brand has reached out customers, likely retail sell-in accounts, to notify them of the action.
Wikipedia explains that Gouda gets its name from the Dutch city where it originated in the Middle Ages. The cheesemaking process for Gouda has been modernized and internationalized; but today, the traditional unpasteurized form crafted back then is still under protection by some of the country’s native farmers.
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