Topps Meat Shuts Down

After being in business since the 1940's, Topps Meat becomes a casualty of a huge recall of its famous hamburger meat. The company announced it will be closing its doors Effective Immediately on October 5th 2007 after being in business for 67 years.

The recall involved approximately 21.7 million pounds of ground meat after it was discovered to be contaminated with E. coli, and 30 confirmed cases of illness so far nation wide.

In a public statement Anthony D’Urso, Chief Operating Officer said; “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. We sincerely
regret the impact this will have on our employees, our customers and suppliers, and the
community. Most of all, we regret that our products have been linked by public health
agencies to recently reported illnesses. We hope and pray for the full recovery of those
individuals.”

Though the practice is considered to be safe, and not illegal some are pointing to the fact that Topps Meat had a practice of "carrying over" meat from one day to the next without providing a separate batch number. When a problem occurs it makes tracking a possible contamination more difficult and results in larger recalls due to several days worth of productions being possibly contaminated.

Apparently Executives declined to comment on weather they had a plan in place to prevent the closing, why they collapsed so quickly and weather they could have taken earlier steps to thwart the closing of the company.

So, it is unclear at this time weather they had a business continuity plan in place for such an event or not. However, I feel it reinforces the need for such a plan to be in place. Ask yourself, can your company afford not to have one?