Kroger Co. Expands Recall of Ground Beef Products

WASHINGTON — The Kroger Co., a Cincinnati, Ohio, retailer is expanding its June 25 recall to include an undetermined amount of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced.

The recall is being expanded based on the ongoing epidemiological and traceback investigation of a food-borne illness outbreak.

The June 25 recall was initiated after epidemiological investigations and a case control study conducted by the Michigan and Ohio Departments of Agriculture and Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that there is an association between the ground beef products and food-borne illnesses.

Currently, there are 41 illnesses reported in Michigan (21) and Ohio (20). The illnesses were linked through the epidemiological investigation by their pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern, or DNA fingerprint, found in PulseNet, a database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.