A ground beef recall for more than 545,699 pounds of meat has been expanded to states from North Carolina to Maine on fears of E. coli contamination.

Fairbanks Farms of Ashville, N.Y., expanded its ground beef recall on Monday after learning packages of its meat produced between Sept. 14 and 16 may have been distributed to more states than first thought. The recalled ground beef was sold in Acme, BJ's, Ford Brothers, Giant Food Stores, Price Chopper, Shaw's and Trader Joe's.

Get the full recall list after the jump.

I think it's been a while since we had a beef recall. And by "a while" I mean about a week.

JSM Meat Holdings and the USDA have issued a recall for meat that was distributed to 11 states. The beef was distributed in 30 pound, 60 pound, and 47 gallon containers (the beef was used in ground products). The containers are labeled with the words "Morreale Meat" and the number "EST 6872." They could possibly be contaminated with e.coli.

The states affected are Pennsylvania, Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Georgia, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

I bet that when you heard about the recent recall of 143 million pounds of beef from Westland/Hallmark you didn't think you'd have to worry about sauces and bouillon cubes.

But that's what's happening. Although much of the frozen beef from the past two years has probably already been eaten or discarded, there might also be some of the meat in canned and packaged foods, including soup, sauces, and bouillon cubes. And some of those foods can sometimes stay on shelves and in the cupboards of consumers for a couple of years.

There have been no illnesses reported and no evidence of actual contamination, but officials don't want to take any chances.

When I posted about the latest meat recall yesterday - 143 million pounds of meat by Hallmark - I remember wondering to myself why they were worried about meat that was sold two years ago. Wouldn't that meat have been eaten already? Even if we freeze meat, isn't two years a little long to keep it in the fridge, especially in this instance when it wasn't private homes but schools and restaurants?

The answer comes from the Slate's Explainer column today. Simply put, it's because some of it still might be out there, not eaten. Now, that's highly unlikely, but the recall had to happen just to make sure (and to also alert the public to what happened at this particular company). In fact, they say the recall could be extended beyond those two years.

We posted a few weeks ago about several schools banning the sale of beef that originated in California. At that time, the USDA was investigating.

It's now official.143 million pounds of frozen beef has been recalled by the USDA.

That's not a typo. It really is 143 million pounds. It's the largest meat recall in U.S. history. The beef comes from the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company and goes back to February 1, 2006. The USDA says that cattle at the California factory was mistreated and that there were other health regulations that weren't met. Officials have undercover video that shows sick and crippled cattle being mistreated by employees.

And this isn't just frozen meat that you get at the supermarket. Westland/Hallmark is a big supplier to fast food chains and schools. Officials think that most of the meat has already been eaten (though no sicknesses have been reported as of yet).

Another beef recall to tell you about. This one is from American Foods Group.

The company has recalled 96,000 pounds of beef chuck, chop beef, and sirloin. Two people have gotten sick from possible E.coli, so the company has recalled beef distributed to stores in Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Here's a full list of the products recalled and what consumers should do.

We told you recently (last week, maybe two weeks ago, all of these food recalls are becoming a blur) about a big beef recall in Canada involving Rancher's Beef. Now it looks like the beef was more widely distributed than earlier thought.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says that consumers should look out for several more Rancher's Beef products. It is suspected that the beef contains E. coli. The link above has a list of the products and the stores the beef was delivered. Here's our original notice on the beef recall.

Cargill isn't having a good fall. A month after recalling 840,000 pounds of beef because of E. coli contamination, the company is again recalling beef. This time it's one million pounds of beef distributed to Stop & Shop, Giant, Weis, and Wegman supermarkets. The states involved include Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia.

Here is the info for this particular recall. If you have any questions, consumers are urged to call Cargill at 877-455-1034.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall on beef that might be tainted with E. coli.

The recall includes boneless chuck steak and ground beef from Rancher's Meat sold at Shopper's Outlet and Mr. G stores in Prince George, BC in June, as well as ground beef sold at Buy-Low Foods in Lillooet in August.

In a related story, Rancher's Meat is also being blamed on several illnesses in the U.S. as well. The company supplied Topps with beef. Both companies are now out of business.

First we had the Topps frozen hamburger patty recall that eventually closed the company, and now comes this.

Cargill Meat Solutions has recalled almost 845,000 pounds of frozen patties. Several cases of sickness have been reported, and the company did find E. coli in their plant. The patties are sold under the name American Chef Selection of Angus Frozen Ground Beef Patties. The meat was produced in August and has been sold in Sam's Clubs locations across the country.

We've had so many food recalls this year, and they are usually over fairly quickly and the companies move on. But that's not happening in this case.

Topps Meat Company has announced that they are going out of business because of the beef recall it had to do last week. The recall was one of the largest in history, amounting to over 21 million pounds, and hurt the company so much that they can no longer stay in business. The company faces two lawsuits about the beef (so far) and the USDA has also been criticized for not acting sooner. Most of the beef was eaten by consumers who bought it, and 30 cases of E.Coli-based illness have occurred.

The closing of the Newark, NJ company means that 87 people will be out of work.

We told you last week that the Topps Meat Company had announced a recall of over 331,000 pounds of ground beef and patties that may contain E. coli. Did that seem like a lot to you? Topps has now expanded that recall to 21.7 million pounds. There's a possibility that total could increase later today.

I didn't think that there were that many pounds of meat in the U.S.

This is the fifth largest food recall in U.S. history. Several people have become sick from eating the beef. Topps even says that based on research, they think that most of the beef has already been consumed by customers.

You didn't think this week was going to go by without a food recall notice, did you?

Topps Meat Company is recalling over 331,000 pounds of frozen hamburger because of E. coli concerns. Six people have gotten sick from the contamination, and three of them had to be hospitalized.

The patties were distributed under several different names and several different box sizes and dates. Here's a complete list of the recalled items from the USDA.