Topps Beef Burgers Ruined the Party

Poughkeepsie, NYDenise Shepherd's family was celebrating her son's graduation party—she cooked a box of Topps beef burgers. Luckily, she had other items on the menu and the kids opted for hotdogs; they were the only family members who didn't get food poisoning—the burgers were on the recall list because they were contaminated with E. coli.

"At the time, we weren't sure what it was that made us sick," says Shepherd. "My sister had been sick during the week and thought it was a virus. We ate the burgers Sunday and on Monday night I got sick. I was throwing up and had diarrhea the next day. It only lasted about 24 hours but my brother-in-law who drove up from Texas was sick for three days--the duration of his vacation with us."

Ironically, Shepherd's brother-in-law has a PhD and does research for the army on food problems; he mentioned that they could have food poisoning. "No, my sister was sick earlier so it must be a virus going around," Shepherd told him.

"My brother-in-law, daughter, my mother and my cousin got sick," says Shepherd. "My son and husband went for the hotdogs—lucky them. In all, about 10 people were affected, mostly family.

"When I heard about the recall, I looked on the Topps box but the date didn't correspond with their recall dates. One week later, they had extended the 'sell-by' date and then I asked the people who were sick what they had eaten. Then I talked to my sister who had been sick before the party and she had eaten Topps burgers that week."

Denise had sleuthed the source: Topps beef burgers, without a doubt.

"Then I visited LawyersandSettlements and read about a class action lawsuit against Topps. It didn't surprise me. I feel horrible that my family came to a party and got sick. I feel responsible even though it wasn't my fault. This sure put a damper on the graduation. My son felt bad too.

I heard that Topps knew about E coli a few weeks before they issued a recall. I am outraged that some people could have been eating their burgers while the company knew about E coli contamination all along. I had two boxes left in my freezer and my sister had a party in August—I offered them to her but she had already bought some other burgers. Thank God she didn't take them.

After we found out about the recall, my husband threw out the burgers but I kept the two boxes—16 burgers in each box. Nobody went to the doctor because we thought it was just a virus. Usually in adults, you can get better in a few days. I read that people with compromised immune systems and children could get really sick. And no young kids were sick because they ate other food. Thank God they didn't have a burger."