Topps Meat Company
- For the company that manufactures candy and collectibles, see The Topps Company, Inc..
Topps Meat Company (Topps Meat Company LLC) was a privately owned family company founded in 1940 and headquartered at 1161 E. Broad Street in downtown Elizabeth, New Jersey.[1][2] The company produced and distributed frozen ground beef patties and other meat products.[1] In 2003, the company was purchased by Strategic Investment and Holdings, an investment firm based in Buffalo, New York; by 2007 it was "one of the country’s largest manufacturers of frozen hamburgers."[2]
2007 meat recall
21.7 million pounds of frozen ground beef products produced between September 25, 2006, and September 25, 2007 by the Topps Meat Company were recalled in September 2007 due to Escherichia coli O157:H7 contamination concerns. This is the the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history, after Hudson Foods Company's recall of 25 million pounds of ground beef in 1997.[3][4] Product samples subsequently tested positive for contamination with E. coli.[5]
The first reported case of illness linked to the contamination occurred on July 5, 2007.[4][5]
On October 4, 2007 a class-action lawsuit was filed against Topps Meat over the contaminated meat and its consequences.[6] Also on October 4, 2007, the USDA served Topps Meat with a "notice of intended enforcement" (which is a move just short of suspending the rest of the company’s meat production) because of "inadequate process controls" also in the company’s non-ground beef production processes.[4] On October 5, 2007, Topps Meat ceased operations; 77 workers were laid off while about 10 others remained employed to assist the USDA's investigation.[3]
Criticism of an 18-day delay in seeking the recall of millions of pounds of tainted Topps Meat ground beef caused the USDA to promise to speed up warnings about contaminated meat in the future.[7]
Sources and notes
- ^ a b "Archive.org, "About Topps"". Retrieved 2007-10-05.
- ^ a b "Meat Company Going Out of Business After Recall". Retrieved 2007-10-05.
- ^ a b
"Topps Meat Co. folds after beef recall". Retrieved 2007-10-06.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|published=ignored (help) - ^ a b c
"After Extensive Beef Recall, Topps Goes Out of Business". Retrieved 2007-10-06.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|published=ignored (help) - ^ a b "Topps Meat Recall Expanded (Full list included)". Retrieved 2007-10-05.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|published=ignored (help) - ^ "Class action lawsuit filed against producer of beef". Retrieved 2007-10-05.
- ^ Associated Press article "USDA Defends 18-Day Wait on Beef Recall" by HOPE YEN and JEFFREY GOLD published October 5, 2007