Some area Ralphs pull ground beef off shelves

Just three days away from the Fourth of July weekend, some Ralphs supermarkets in Hollywood, Silver Lake and Orange County on Tuesday pulled ground beef off their shelves in response to a Nebraska beef recall connected to an outbreak of E. coli illnesses, according to store managers.

Omaha-based Nebraska Beef Ltd. recalled 531,707 pounds of ground beef produced since May after some of its product, sold by Kroger Co., was linked to reports that as many as 38 people in Ohio and Michigan had become ill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said Tuesday.

Kroger immediately recalled its beef products from those states, where a U.S. probe into the illnesses is continuing.

Meanwhile, Ralphs supermarkets, which are supplied by Kroger, were posting signs that ground beef would be unavailable until today, a store manager in Hollywood said.

Ralphs corporate spokesmen could not be reached to say how many area stores had removed the ground beef.

E. coli can cause severe illness and even death in humans. Symptoms of E. coli infection can include stomach cramps and diarrhea.

Federal agriculture officials were urging people to eat only ground beef that had been cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F.

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louis.sahagun@latimes.com