LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – At least 21 people in Colorado and 10 other U.S. states have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak that prompted the recall of more than 800,000 pounds of ground beef, federal and state officials said on Friday.

Raw hamburger associated with known illnesses in Colorado was traced to Beef Packers Inc. in Fresno, California, a unit of Minneapolis-based agribusiness giant Cargill Inc, officials said.

Beef Packers' voluntary recall of nearly 826,000 pounds (375,000 kilograms) of ground beef was announced on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The company said the recalled meat, which was produced from June 5 to June 23, was shipped to retail outlets in 12 Western states, including Safeway stores, Sam's Club stores and United Grocers stores.

"We are working with retailers to ensure that all of the ground beef subject to the recall has been removed from the meat case," Beef Packers said in a statement.

A spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, Bryn Burkard, said confirmed salmonella poisoning cases linked to the meat in question had surfaced in 11 states, with the bulk of the cases, at least 21, in Colorado. The other states were not immediately identified.

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment said four people have been hospitalized but all were recovering.

Burkard said the latest outbreak was caused by the so-called Newport strain of salmonella bacteria, which is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics and more frequently results in hospitalization.

Dr. David Acheson, a physician and former head of food safety for the Food and Drug Administration who now works as a private consultant, said the Newport strain is often found in dairy cows, which are typically slaughtered for ground beef when they grow too old to yield milk.

A Cargill spokeswoman declined to comment on the origin of the beef that was recalled.

Acheson said the latest recall, which follows a salmonella-related recall of raw hamburger in July by another producer, is relatively significant in size.

"When you're getting up to a million pounds, that's a lot of meat," he said.

Salmonella is a common food-borne bacteria that causes acute gastrointestinal illness and can be life-threatening in patients with weakened immune systems, though its presence in food does not trigger an automatic recall under current regulations.

Recalls are mandatory for contamination by the more lethal E. coli bacteria.

The latest salmonella outbreak follows a string of food-borne safety scares that led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation last week to require more inspections and oversight of food manufacturers and would give the government new authority to order recalls.

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