COLUMBUS, Ohio – Officials say a recall of nearly 96,000 pounds of ground beef products began with three people sick from E. coli in the Cleveland area.
Illnesses related to the recalled meat also have been reported in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that Valley Meats LLC of Coal Valley, Ill., began the recall after its meat was linked to the Ohio infections.
The Ohio Department of Health alerted federal officials last week that a 3-year-old girl, a 24-year-old man and a 71-year-old man with no connection to one another were ill from E. coli bacteria with the same genetic fingerprint.
Department spokesman Kristopher Weiss says two of the three were hospitalized and all are now recovered
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