The CDC said a New York adult with underlying medical conditions had died and another possibly related death in New Hampshire was under investigation. State officials attribute the New Hampshire death to the O157:H7 E. coli bacteria.

All but three of the 28 cases listed by the CDC were in the U.S. Northeast and 18 were in the New England states. Sixteen hospitalizations were reported, said a CDC spokeswoman. The bacteria involved were from a common strain, so tests were under way to see if all of the reported cases were related.

Over the weekend, Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York, recalled 545,699 lbs (248,450 kg) of ground beef products.

The Agriculture Department, which oversees meat safety, said an investigation led it to conclude “there is an association between the fresh ground beef products and illnesses in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.” USDA worked with state and federal officials in examining a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses.

A potentially deadly bacteria, E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness.

A string of food-borne safety scares led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation this summer to require more inspections and oversight of food manufacturers and would give the government new authority to order recalls.

Fairbank Farms announced the recall on Saturday. The beef was produced in mid-September and probably was labeled for sale before the end of the month, said USDA.

It went to retailers including Trader Joe’s, Price Chopper, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Shaw’s, a unit of Supervalu (SVU.N), BJ’s (BJ.N), Ford Brothers and Giant, a unit of Ahold (AHLN.AS), in eight states — Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

A complete list of products is available at:

link.reuters.com/vyx27f

The beef was produced Sept. 14 to 16, and the company urged consumers to check their freezers for products listed in the recall. Labels of the recalled packages will say EST 492 inside the USDA

BEIJING: Shanghai city authorities have launched a massive inspection in the fisheries industry out of fear that melamine contamination may
spread to the seafood industry. Melamine, a plastic industry chemical, has been found in milk and eggs in China resulting in wide-spread panic among consumers.

Shanghai’s Livestock Office today announced that its inspection programme will cover more than 100 feed producers. It will launch more detailed investigations into the quality of seafood if the feed given to fish is found to be contaminated with melamine.

Investigations into quality of eggs have revealed that the toxic chemical is present in the products of several poultry farms. Egg contamination came to light after health authorities in Hong Kong said on Monday that have found melamine in eggs supplied by one of the major hatcheries. But subsequent investigations showed that the problem exists in eggs produced by four different companies selling under different brands.

Meanwhile, the State media reported that a local government in northeast China has banned the media from publishing reports about the discovery of melamine-tainted eggs for weeks until the matter was exposed in Hong Kong late last week. The suppression of information has resulted in delay in official action to stop the spread of the contamination, sources said.

The discovery was made by the animal sanitation inspection department of Liaoning province, which was investigating the quality of animal feed produced by a local company, Mingxing Feed Company.
Melamine is believed to cause kidney stones in people who consume it beyond the permissible limits.

Melamine poisoning of milk has resulted in illness of over 50,000 infants and death to four of them in China so far. Melamine was used as adulteration material in order to boost the protein content of milk. However, eggs contaminated by melamine have not caused any reported illnesses so far.

Industry sources said that use of melamine, which was banned by a government order last year, is widespread in China. It is used in feed given to cows, sheep, poultry, pigs and fish. Even soft-shelled turtles and eels are also on the list, especially in southern China.