Topps Meat Company Closes

Last Saturday, September 29, I was online checking the news and came across a series of articles regarding a beef recall. Then I saw it was a beef recall of over 21 million pounds of beef, primarily preformed hamburger patties. The company was Topps Meat Company LLC, based out of New Jersey, that supplies many stores in several states, including one of the largest retailers, WalMart. Topps had discovered that they meat may have been tainted with E. coli, and numerous cases had stemmed from their products.

Facing one of the largest beef recalls ever, this was only the start of a downward spiral for Topps. On Friday, October 5, Topps Meat Company reported on their website that the company was closing. According to a company press release, the company stated that the closing of the company was due to "the economic impact of the second-largest beef recall in US history". Stating "In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large", Anthony D'Urso, the company's Chief Operating Officer, and other executives were forced to shut down Topps Meat Company after 67 years of business.

The release goes on to explain that due to the USDA investigation and the administrative work associated with the recall, a portion of their 87 employees would remain at the Topps Meat Company headquarters in New Jersey until the recall and investigation have concluded.

According to the Center of Disease Control in a Reuters report, 29 cases of E. Coli are being linked to products produced by Topps Meat Company. Fortunatly, no deaths have been linked to the tainted meat products, but recovering from a recall of this magnitude is near impossible, and Topps executives clearly realized that. Not only does it hurt financially, being forced to replace all the infected product, but an outbreak like this has destroyed the Topps Meat Company image, creating a public relations nightmare.

In an earlier press release from Topps Meat Company, the type of E. Coli found in their products was most likely formed in the intestines of normal, healthy cows. The meat becomes tainted with E. Coli when the cow is slaughtered and then ground up, causing the E. Coli to be exposed to what had been disease-free meat from the cow.

As a NRAEF ServSafe certified Food Protection manager, we are taught that the steps to prevent ingesting E. Coli and becoming infected is to fully cook not only all ground beef products, but all beef products. When menus at restaurants have a warning saying that consuming raw or undercooked meat may cause illness, this is what they are referring to. Last but not least, never take a plate or pan that had raw meat in it and then put another type of food in it. This results in cross contamination and can result any potential diseases that were in the raw meat to transfer to whatever went into the pan or plate next.

More information and specifics on E. Coli can be found online at www.usda.gov

Further information regarding the closing of Topps Meat Company LLC can be viewed at http://www.toppsmeat.com/

Sources used:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0435109220071004
http://www.toppsmeat.com/