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An E. coli outbreak that is being investigated as the cause of illness in 35 people in eight states has claimed one fatality: the Topps Meat Co., Elizabeth, N.J.

Topps announced on Oct. 5 that it was ending operations after 67 years in business, a day after a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company. Topps said in a statement that “because of the economic impact of the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history” it was forced to close its Elizabeth plant and go out of business.

Cases of E. coli related to the company’s products have been reported in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Maine. The first reported illness began on July 5, 2007, and the last began on Sept. 23, 2007. No human deaths have been reported.

Topps first announced the recall on Sept. 25, when it recalled approximately 331,582 pounds of frozen ground beef products. The company originally thought that the contaminated products were limited to batches produced on June 22, July 12 or July 23, 2007. On Sept. 25, the company expanded the recall to include 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products, representing all products produced by Topps with a “sell by date” or “best if used by date” falling between Sept. 25, 2007 and Sept. 25, 2008.

Another victim of the outbreak may be the reputation of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, which, due to “protocol” allowed 18 days to pass between the initial finding of a positive E. coli test result from an open package of Topps hamburgers found in a Florida patient’s freezer. Following department procedure, the CDC decided to do further testing to “determine definitively that it was linked to the patient's illness,” according to Dr. David Goldman, Assistant Administrator, Office of Public Health Science, during a Tele-News Conference held Oct. 4 by the USDA.

Goldman said that agency then initiated DNA testing, which took seven days to complete. On Sept. 14 they confirmed that the DNA samples from the patient and the hamburger samples found in her freezer were a match, but didn’t issue a recall because the box in the patient’s freezer had been opened. “We termed this a ‘non-intact packaging,’ and…we cannot say with absolute certainty that the contamination occurred in the processing plant, not in the home,” Goldman says.

On Sept. 22, the agency got a DNA test report from New York State confirming that two illnesses there were connected to Topps’ products. Two days later, New York State notified FSIS that officials there had tested an unopened box of Topps hamburger obtained in a supermarket that also tested positive for E. coli. The next morning, the recall was issued.

Goldman noted that the agency has been reviewing the data and its protocols to determine how to improve the way they conduct recalls in the future. “We've determined in fact that there is room for improvement, and we intend to act on the findings of our review immediately,” he said.