Vivian Quinones leaves the Topps Meat Co. plant in Elizabeth, N.J. Topps Meat Co. on Friday said it was closing its business, six days after it was forced to issue the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history and 67 years after it first opened it doors.

Newark, N.J. ? Topps Meat Co. on Friday said it was closing its business, six days after it was forced to issue the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history and 67 years after the company first opened its doors.

The decision will cost 87 people their jobs, Topps said.

On Sept. 25 Topps began recalling frozen hamburger patties that may have been contaminated with a potentially fatal E. coli bacteria strain. The recall eventually ballooned to 21.7 million pounds of ground beef.

Thirty people in eight states had E. coli infections matching the strain found in the Topps patties, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. None have died.

“This is tragic for all concerned,” said Topps chief operating officer Anthony D’Urso, a member of the family that founded the company in 1940.

Privately held Topps, which claimed to be the leading U.S. maker of frozen hamburger patties, sells its products to supermarkets and institutions such as schools, hospitals, restaurants and hotels.

The CDC reported the number of linked cases in these states: Connecticut, 2; Florida, 1; Indiana, 1; Maine, 1; New Jersey, 7; New York, 9; Ohio, 1; and Pennsylvania, 8.

The recall represents all Topps hamburger products with either a “sell by date” or a “best if used by date” between Sept. 25, 2007 and Sept. 25, 2008. All recalled products also have the USDA establishment number EST 9748, which is on the back panel of the package or in the USDA legend. A full list of the recalled products is available at http://www.toppsmeat.com.

The Topps recall raised questions about whether the U.S. Agriculture Department should have acted quicker to encourage a recall. On Thursday, top USDA officials said they would speed warnings in the future.

Topps conceded that much of the recalled meat already had been eaten, and expressed regret Friday that its product had been linked to illnesses.

“We hope and pray for the full recovery of those individuals,” D’Urso said in a statement.

Topps, which halted production Sept. 26, is not the first meat company shuttered by a recall. Hudson Foods Co. closed its plant in Columbus, Neb., after it agreed in 1997 to destroy 25 million pounds of hamburger in the largest U.S. meat recall after E. coli was found in the ground beef. The plant later reopened with new owners.

Topps faces at least two lawsuits filed since the recall, one from the family of an upstate New York girl who became ill, and one seeking class-action status.