[Viewpoint] A Press Release You Don't Ever Want to Write

I’ve been involved in business-to-business publishing for more than 25 years and during that time I’ve watched my share of companies go out of business as a result of financial mismanagement, shoddy personnel practices or an inability to respond appropriately to rapidly changing market conditions. It’s never pretty. However, seldom have I witnessed such a dramatic fall from grace as occurred in October when the Topps Meat Company announced it was ceasing operation as a result of the economic fallout from the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history.

In just 11 days, from the time the Elizabeth, N.J.-based company began recalling hamburger patties that may have been contaminated by a potentially deadly strain of E. coli, to the day it was announced the 67-year-old business would be closing its doors, the Topps Meat Company experienced one of the most humbling turn of events in the history of the food-processing industry.

“This is tragic for all concerned,” said COO Anthony D’Urso, a member of the family that founded the firm. “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,” he said in a statement released by the company Oct. 5. “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.”

More than 30 people in eight states had E. coli infections matching the strain found in the Topps patties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At press time, no deaths had been reported. A class-action lawsuit, seeking unspecified monetary compensation, has been filed against the company and the supermarkets that sold the tainted hamburger patties, raising renewed questions about the safety of the nation’s meat supply following a summer when E. coli was in the news more than public health officials would like.

In a tele-news conference on Oct. 4, Dr. Richard Raymond, under secretary for food safety at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the increase in E. coli outbreaks this past year, including the Topps Meat recall, has served as a “kind of wake-up call” for the agency. “We had three really good years where the number of E. coli infections related to ground beef were declining or very low,” he said. “Something happened this summer...we saw the recall numbers go up, we saw human illnesses attributed to ground beef go up.”

We also saw a 65-year-old, privately held business that employed 87 people and had never had a product recall in its history go down. So the next time you’re wondering if your food safety program is as good as it possibly can be, consider the cautionary tale of the Topps Meat Company and the words of company COO D’Urso, who said, “Topps has always prided itself on providing the utmost quality and safety and never had a recall in our history until now. This has been a shocking and sobering experience for everyone.”
Those are powerful words, words worth remembering every day you walk through the front door of your plant to begin your work day. 

The author is Editor and Publisher of QA magazine.