January 2, 2008
 
Company to buy Topps Meat after it succumbed to bankruptcy
 

Premio Foods of Hawthorne New Jersey announced plans to buy Topps Meat through a bankruptcy proceeding, which may close the deal on January 10, 2008.
 
Topps declared closure six days after its massive beef recall, the second largest in the US history. The company stopped its operations on October 5, 2007.
 
MSDT Acquisition Corp., an affiliate of Premio Foods Inc., is in the process of purchasing all the Topps Meat trademarks and physical assets.

Federal bankruptcy court filings indicate that Premio offered US$794,605 to purchase the Topps remaining assets.
 
The proposed purchase states that Premio will pay 10 cents per pound for some 1.3 million of packaged inventory, and five cents per pound for nearly 536,000 pounds of raw meat.

However, the government was clear that Premio should destroy all leftover meat that might still be in Topps warehouses as these are contaminated with E. coli bacteria, the reason for the gargantuan recall.

In September 2007, Topps recalled a total of 21.7 million pounds of meat after some of its packaged meat products were tainted with E. coli bacteria.

Centers for Disease Control reported more than 100 people in eight states and Canada became ill after eating Topps beef.

Joint investigations by USDA and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency determined the source of the E. coli contamination to be a Canadian meat supplier, Ranchers Beef Ltd., of Balzac, Alberta. US now bans any further purchases from Ranchers Beef.

The 43-year-old Premio Foods manufactures more than 20 varieties of Italian sausage.

Meanwhile, Strategic Investments & Holdings, a private equity firm which owned Topps since 2003 has given no comment on the matter yet.