Reply #5: For some context [View All]

[achtung_circus]

during later high school and during university my summer job was in the plant that produced all of (a huge company's) hamburger patties for Canada. We produced 80,000# per shift, 2 shifts a day. The third shift was a complete plant clean-down.

Based on very simple multiplication that means the plant could produce 40,000,000 per year. That involved taking boxed boneless beef, grinding, mixing, forming, flash-freezing and packing. It was not rocket science and we operated under one meat inspector, who due to the relatively small physical size of the plant, was able to watch almost everything, almost all the time.

Staying clean, and keeping product clean was simple.

I think it probable that contamination likely occurred on or shortly after the kill floor. I don't know whether Topps did that in-house or outsourced its meat.