To help the ground beef industry prepare, the rule will begin next March.

Bob Nichols/United States Department of Agriculture, via Associated Press

“We’re doing this to prevent illness and to save lives,” said Dr. Elisabeth Hagen.

The new rule, which officials said would be announced on Tuesday, means that six relatively rare forms of E. coli will be treated the same as their notorious and more common cousin, a strain called E. coli O157:H7. That strain has caused deaths and illnesses and prompted the recall of millions of pounds of ground beef and other products. It was banned from ground beef in 1994 after an outbreak killed four children and sickened hundreds of people.

“We’re doing this to prevent illness and to save lives,” said Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, the head of food safety for the Agriculture Department, which regulates meat. “This is one of the biggest steps forward in the protection of the beef supply in some time.”

It is not illegal to sell fresh meat or poultry containing most toxic bacteria, like salmonella; they are frequently found on groceries’ meat, and thorough cooking typically kills the pathogens. But since the 1994 outbreak, which involved hamburgers served at Jack in the Box restaurants, regulators have treated E. coli in ground beef differently.

Many people eat rare or undercooked ground beef, and if it is tainted, resulting illnesses can be deadly. Toxic E. coli, in its most common O157 form, is so virulent that just a few organisms can make people violently sick. The toxic E. coli live in the digestive tracts of cows and can get on meat during slaughter. It can cause bloody diarrhea, stomach cramps and, in severe cases, kidney failure.

In recent years, scientists found that several other strains of E. coli in food were also making people sick, and they identified the six most potent, called the Big Six non-O57s. Beginning at least four years ago, the U.S.D.A. began considering extending its ban to those additional toxic strains.

But the American Meat Institute, an industry group, has argued that safety measures already in place are sufficient. On Monday, the group was highly critical of the extended ban.

“Imposing this new regulatory program on ground beef will cost tens of millions of federal and industry dollars — costs that likely will be borne by taxpayers and consumers,” the group said in a statement. “It is neither likely to yield a significant public health benefit nor is it good public policy.”

While several outbreaks caused by the Big Six strains have been linked to produce, the group pointed to the fact that only one has been related to ground beef. In that outbreak, last year, three people fell ill.

“It’s just not supported by the science,” James H. Hodges, the institute’s executive vice president, said in an interview.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that E. coli strains other than O157:H7 cause nearly 113,000 illnesses each year, one-third of which can be attributed to tainted beef, according to U.S.D.A. officials. Until recently, few cases were reported, however, because most medical labs were not equipped to test for the less common forms.

The Agriculture Department will begin enforcing the rule in March, to give the meat industry time to prepare. The rule will apply to hamburger meat and trim or beef scraps that go into it, as well as some other products, like steaks that have been tenderized with machines that use needles to poke minute holes in the surface. Some meat processors have begun to test for the six strains in recent months in anticipation of federal action, and many others will most likely begin testing once the government begins its own testing.

Under the rule, raw meat containing the Big Six E. coli cannot be sold to the public. Currently, most packing plants divert meat containing E. coli O157:H7 for use in cooked products, and will most likely do the same with meat containing the new strains, as well. The bacteria is killed by heating the meat to 160 degrees.

While the new rule significantly expands the Agriculture Department’s beef ban, it does not include all forms of toxic E. coli. A highly virulent strain of the bacteria that caused dozens of deaths among people who ate contaminated sprouts in Europe this summer is not one of the Big Six because it has not been detected as a cause of illness in the United States.

Dr. Hagen said the list of banned pathogens might grow. “This is where we started and it doesn’t rule out the possibility that we would consider other pathogens in the future,” she said.

The new rule highlighted the patchwork and often confusing nature of food safety regulation, where most meat is under the jurisdiction of the U.S.D.A. while most other foods, including produce, are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The F.D.A. already considers it illegal to sell food containing any bacteria, including toxic forms of E. coli or other substances that could make people sick.

Dr. Hagen also said the rule did not conflict with the Obama administration’s push to cut back on regulation that could increase costs for business at a time of economic hardship.

“There’s really no inconsistency between having a strong economy and having a safe food supply,” Dr. Hagen said. The U.S.D.A. estimated that the rule would cost the industry up to $10 million a year for testing and holding meat back from the fresh ground beef market.

“The amount this is going to cost is insignificant compared to the lives that will be saved,” said Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, who pushed for the expanded rule.

After the U.S.D.A. banned the O157 form of E. coli from ground beef in 1994, the meat industry sued to block the move, but the agency prevailed in court.

Mr. Hodges, of the meat institute, said the group had yet to see a full version of the rule and would consult with its members before deciding how to respond.

Professor Charles Gerba, the lead researcher, swabbed the handles of 85 carts in four states for bacterial contamination.

Gerba says 72% of the carts had a positive marker for fecal bacteria. When they examined some of the samples, they found Escherichia coli, also known as E. coli, on half of them.

Researchers say they actually found more fecal bacteria on grocery cart handles than you would typically find in a bathroom, mainly because bathrooms are disinfected more often than shopping carts.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting, U.S. officials said on Monday.

The beef was produced by Huntington Meat Packing Inc of Montebello, California, and shipped mainly to California outlets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety arm said.

An initial problem, in ground beef shipped by the plant from January 5 to January 15, was discovered during a regular safety check, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said.

It said it had received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of the recalled products.

During a follow-up review of the company’s records, government inspectors determined additional products produced and shipped in 2008 to be of concern because they may have been contaminated with E.coli, the service said in a notice on its web site.

This batch was produced from February 19, 2008, to May 15, 2008. It also had been shipped to distribution centers, restaurants and hotels within California, the notice said.

“While these products are normally used fresh, the establishment is taking this action out of concern that some product may still be frozen and in commerce,” it said.

E. coli is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause kidney failure in the most serious cases.

The service said it routinely conducts checks to verify that recalling firms notify customers, including restaurants, of the recall and that steps are taken to make sure the product is no longer available to consumers.

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

It’s not known for sure yet whether Nestle Toll House cookies are to blame for an outbreak of E. coli that has sickened at least 66 people in 28 states, but it seems likely. “Many” of the afflicted people had eaten raw Toll House cookie dough, according to ABC News.

Nestle has recalled the refrigerated product and warned people against eating it raw, as incredibly delicious as it might be. They shouldn’t eat it cooked either, the company said, until the source of the outbreak has been discovered. Cooking would normally kill the bacteria, but, of course, Nestle is taking no chances.