Topps Meat Company (Topps Meat Company LLC) was a privately owned family company founded in 1940 by Benjamin Sachs in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York. The company later relocated to Elizabeth, New Jersey. The company produced and distributed frozen ground beef patties and other meat products processed at its plant in Elizabeth and posted about $8.8 million a year in sales, according to information reported by Dun & Bradstreet.NJBIZ
article "Potentially Deadly Threat Led To Recall - Topps Meat must re-evaluate sanitation and process controls" published September 8, 2007 In 2003, the company was purchased by Strategic Investment and Holdings, an investment firm based in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

and by 2007 it was "one of the country’s largest manufacturers of frozen hamburgers." In 2007 the company ceased operations following Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) contamination of products and the ensuing recall.

Ownership

According to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'': :"Topps opened in 1940 in Manhattan. The founder, Benjamin Sachs, later sold the company to his son, Steven Sachs, according to Ann Sachs, the founder’s former daughter-in-law. A few years before the company moved to New Jersey, Joseph D’Urso became vice president. After Mr. D’Urso died in 2003, the company was bought by Strategic Investment and Holdings."

Timeline

*1940 - Founded *2003 - Purchased by Strategic Investment and Holdings *2005 **

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

found that the plant had received meat tainted with E. coli **Topps settled a $1.7 million accidental arm amputation lawsuit **Topps was sued after a consumer became ill from eating a Topps hamburger. *2007 **July 5 - first illness linked to recall **July 8 - second illness case **September 7 -

's first positive test results for E. coli contamination **September 25 - initial recall of 331,582 pounds of frozen hamburger patties **September 29 - with additional evidence of "inadequate sanitation and process controls" and 25 illnesses under investigation in eight states, the

expanded the recall to a total of 21.7 million pounds of Topps beef. **October 4 -

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

filed **October 4 -

's "notice of intended enforcement" **October 5, 2:35 pm - Topps Meat ceases operations

Controversy

21.7 million pounds of frozen ground

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

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. At the time, this was the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history, after Hudson Foods Company's recall of 25 million pounds of ground beef in 1997. Product samples subsequently tested positive for contamination with E. coli. The first reported case of illness linked to the contamination occurred on July 5, 2007. On October 4, 2007, a

was filed against Topps Meat over the contaminated meat and its consequences. Also on October 4, 2007, the

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. On October 5, 2007, Topps Meat ceased operations; 77 workers were laid off while about 10 others remained employed to assist the

's investigation. "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, chief operating officer, said in a statement.

's first positive test results for E. coli contamination came back September 7, 2007, but they waited for confirming tests before ordering a recall 18 days later. Criticism of that 18-day delay in seeking the recall of millions of pounds of tainted Topps Meat ground beef caused the

to promise to speed up warnings about contaminated meat in the future. As of October 7, 2007, 29 people in eight states had fallen ill after consuming hamburgers made by Topps Meat Co.Chicago Tribune
article ''NATIONAL NEWS RECAP: TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK'' published October 7, 2007

Sources and notes

External links

Topps Meat Company home page
from

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

copy as of May 19, 2006 {{Spoken Wikipedia, date=2022-07-24, en-Topps_Meat_Company-article.ogg Defunct agriculture companies of the United States Companies based in Union County, New Jersey Food manufacturers of the United States American companies established in 1940 Food recalls Companies disestablished in 2007 Defunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey History of Elizabeth, New Jersey Meat companies of the United States Food and drink companies established in 1940

Ownership

Timeline

Controversy

See also

Sources and notes

External links