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Topps Increased Imported Beef

Mike

Well-known member
Did Buffalo firm lower meat standards?
E. coli hit Topps after Strategic Investments altered operations
NEWS STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Updated: 10/24/07 7:43 AM


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Associated Press
Topps Meat Co. in Elizabeth, N.J., went out of business after recalling all its products.
Changes made at the Topps Meat Co. after it was bought by Buffalobased Strategic Investments & Holdings may have played a role in the distribution of contaminated meat, according to a published report.

According to a New York Times story on Tuesday, Strategic Investments ramped up operations at Topps Meat Co. after it acquired the company in 2003, and in the process some of the inspection practices at the plant may have been altered.

Dr. Richard A. Raymond, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for food safety, told the Times “something had changed,” after the Buffalo company took ownership. “A lot of the policies they had had in place were not being followed,” Raymond said.

Agriculture department investigators have recently found that the company failed to require adequate testing on the raw beef it bought from its domestic suppliers, and it sometimes mixed tested and untested meat in its grinding machines. But the department acknowledged that its own safety inspectors never cited the company for the safety breaches, the Times reported.

In September, Topps recalled 21.7 million pounds of frozen meat products — the second largest meat recall in U.S. history — after 40 people in eight states were sicked by E. coli bacteria linked to the company’s frozen hamburger patties. The company closed down early this month, facing continuing investigations into the causes of the contamination.

According to Times interviews with former Topps employees, after Strategic Investments acquired the company, it brought in outside managers, invested $2.5 million in new machines and began boosting production levels.

“The whole time, the whole year, there was a lot more pressure,” Alberto Narvaelzi, a former Topps supervisor who worked for the company for 23 years, told the Times.

The plant also increased the amount of meat it purchased from overseas sources, a practice that has become more common in the processing industry. Some types of meat from foreign countries where E. coli has not been prevalent do not face mandatory testing for contamination.

As The Buffalo News previously reported, Buffalo businessman and civic leader Robert Gioia, a Strategic Investments principal, served at chairman of Topps from the time of its acquisition until late 2006 when he became president of the John R. Oishei Foundation.

Strategic Investments President Gary Brost declined to comment Tuesday on the allegations in the Times story.

Topps, which was the leading U.S. producer of frozen hamburgers for wholesale and retail sale, has been hit with a handful of lawsuits over the contaminated meats, but to date no suits have been filed against Strategic Investments.
 

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