Whole Foods Market Inc., which recalled an additional 1.2 million pounds of beef this month due to a possible contamination with E.coli bacteria, announced its decision to check all meat deliveries to ensure they are purchased from a trusty food processor.

The company recalled about 5.3 million pounds of ground beef linked to illnesses in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illlinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The beef in question, which was bought from Coleman Natural Food, was processed at Nebraska Beef. The plant was closed three times in 2002 and 2003 for problems such as feces on carcasses, water dripping off pipes onto meat, paint peeling onto equipment and plugged-up meat wash sinks. Problems with E. coli were also registered in 2006 when the company was blamed by Minnesota health officials for sickening 17 people who ate meatballs at a church potluck in rural Minnesota.

Whole Foods will start requiring additional testing of all meat deliveries for possible contamination with Escherichia coli. The bacterium is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded animals. Some E. coli strains can cause serious food poisoning in humans. The USDA said the recall is “Class 1,” the most dangerous level of the three classes of recall. This means that eating the beef could cause serious, adverse health consequences or death. E. coli O157:H7 is notorious for causing life-threatening complications such as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS).

The beef products that were withdrawn from the stores were sold between June 2 and August 6 in several states, including Alabama, Canada, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin.

The CDC estimates that there may be about 70,000 infections with E. coli annually in the United States, with many of these cases not seeking medical care.