US company Peck Meat Packing, a division of Emmpak Foods, this week joined an increasing number of US companies obliged to recall beef products.

The company has recalled approximately 568,000 pounds of fresh ground beef produced in September at its ground beef plant in Milwaukee because of possible contamination by E. coli O157:H7.

"A company that was reprocessing some of our ground beef produced on 23 September had taken a sample and had it tested for E. coli O157:H7," said Justin Segel, president of Emmpak. "We have learned that the product tested positive and are announcing this recall," he continued.

Segel said he was not aware of any illnesses related to the current recall. The product was produced in the same plant, but, the company claims, it is unrelated to the earlier recall of about 2.8 million pounds of ground beef that was first announced on 27 September. The plant has been closed since 3 October 2002.

The retail products were sold in Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin.

Peck Meat Packing has established a telephone number for consumers in the US to call: 877-817-7622.

Just this week US Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said that a series of massive food recalls in the US this summer underscored the need to reform a "broken" federal food safety system, calling on the government to toughen up on beef safety legislation.