Blog Post

In the aftermath of the Topps Meat Factory beef recalls this year, the second largest such recall in history, health officials have been prompted to look more closely into what went wrong.

As millions of Americans prepared to see summer through with family barbeques, Topps Meat Company, it is revealed, increased output of their frozen hamburger patties to meet increased demand from retail stores. This spike in production resulted in some serious lapses in health safety checks. Three batches of hamburger patties were discovered to be contaminated with e. coli bacteria with more than 40 people falling prey to the dreaded infection. While Topps itself is now out of business, the New York Times reports that federal health regulators now acknowledge there were serious flaws in the system.

This year alone there have been 16 meat recalls connected to e. coli contamination. In the Topps case, the company failed to mandate safety checks by suppliers and performed its own checks just 3 times a year. Additionally, Agriculture Department inspectors who were present at the inspections did not bother to cite the company.

The Agriculture Department, fighting allegations that it was a mute spectator to blatant violations of health safety checks by the meat industry, has now directed its officials to conduct a nationwide survey to determine the measures that meat processing plants had in place for preventing e coli contamination of their products. Critics of the Department are unimpressed, saying its approach to problems was "haphazard, catch as catch can."

E. Coli contamination of food products causes serious infection and illness, in some cases even leading to death. If you have suffered as a result of consuming a contaminated meat product, consult the experienced lawyers at The Reeves Law Group.