[1][2][3] The company produced and distributed frozen ground beef patties and other meat products processed at its 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) plant in Elizabeth and posted about $8.8 million a year in sales, according to information reported by Dun & Bradstreet.
[10] 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.
[1] 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.
[9] "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.
[11] As of October 7, 2007, 29 people in eight states had fallen ill after consuming hamburgers made by Topps Meat Co.[12]