Sat Sep 29, 12:39 PM ET



CHICAGO (Reuters) Topps Meat Company LLC has expanded its recall to include 21.7 million pounds (9,800 tonnes) of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria, the Elizabeth, New Jersey-based company said on Saturday.

The beef has a "sell by date" or "best if used by date" between September 25, 2007, and September 25, 2008. All recalled products will have a U.S. Department of Agriculture establishment number of EST 9748, which is located on the back panel of the package and/or in the USDA legend.

On Tuesday, the company announced a recall of 331,582 (150 tonnes) pounds of frozen ground beef products.

The problem was discovered through sampling done by the New York State Department of Health as part of their coordinated investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into reported illnesses, the company said.

Products affected by this expanded recall were distributed to retail grocery stores and food service institutions throughout the United States. Based on consumption patterns, Topps said it believes that the vast majority of the recalled product has been consumed.

E. coli can cause potentially fatal complications and symptoms include stomach cramps and diarrhea.

Topps is a privately held company.

it's a wonder i eat chicken and turkey and slowly becoming into a full time vegaterian--

I hear you
I haven't ate it in years
I love veggies
I may have to stick to those and leave the meat alone

yeah. i only eat chicken and turkey no other meat and half the time i juss eat vegies...so im good. lol

turkey and chicken for me also
I don't understand why they keep having this same problem with the E. coli and beef

time changes as life change--but the world has changed a lot that things get worse --i used to eat beef raw so many time when i was young--so now i'm outta way of beef--except if the ribeyed steak is being served--i'm guilty--

I eat nothing but meat and I dont cook any of it hamburger steak none of it rare for me and it aint killed me yet

Please, what's life without E-coli. I'm going to go fix up some burgers right now just thinking about it. You know what's acutally killing us? We worry so much that we might get sick, we actually do. DON'T wash your hands so much, EAT stuff that has hit the floor. If you're body has never had to fight off such infections, how is it going to be prepared when you get a massive injection of stuff. Scratch the burgers, give me a pork chop - rare.

being a vegetarian won't save you from E-coli, it was found in fresh spinich a while back and a couple years ago someone got it from Cantalope because they didn't wash the outside real good with soap and water before they cut it open and the E-coli on the surface got transferred to the edible portion. Makes you want to wash everything you eat in bleach first. But according th the book "The Coming Plague" they now have a strain of food poisoning that can live in and thrive on bleach.

roamingO...ROTFLMAO!!! fire up that grill!!! make mine medium RARE!!!