The outbreak is linked to the same E. Coli strain that contaminated onions used by McDonalds and other fast food chains last month.

Wolverine Packing Co., the company at the heart of a current E. coli recall, supplies over 250 meat brands with familiar names like Tyson.

Food safety officials are encouraging restaurants to not serve these products and say they should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

Thousands of pounds of frozen and fresh ground beef products have been recalled over possible E. coli contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday.

Federal regulators are uring restaurants not to serve the potentially contaminated beef if they have any in their freezers

About 167,000 pounds of fresh and frozen ground beef products have been recalled because they might be contaminated with E. coli. The Minnesota Departments of Agriculture and Health identified a connection between several reported illnesses and ground beef from Wolverine Packing Co.