Hannaford has issued a broad recall for its fresh ground beef sold since October after 14 people in several states were sickened by salmonella.

Four of them were in Maine, according to state epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears, and two had to be hospitalized.

Most of the beef involved appears to have been purchased in October and November, but spokesman Mike Norton said the grocer opted to use an “abundance of caution” and include beef up to a sell-by date of Dec. 17.

Included in the recall is Hannaford brand 73 percent, 75 percent, 80 percent, 85 percent and 90 percent lean regular ground beef, 80 percent, 85 percent and 90 percent lean Taste of Inspirations Angus Ground Beef and 85 percent and 90 percent Nature’s Place ground beef.

“If you have any products with those sell-by dates, we’re trying to make the message as simple as possible: Bring it back for a full return to any Hannaford store,” Norton said.

He said Hannaford would honor refunds for beef in the package as well as hamburger that consumers had broken into unmarked bags and frozen.

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a press release Friday that salmonella illnesses had been reported in Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont after 10 of the 14 people bought Hannaford ground beef between Oct. 12 and Nov. 20.

Sears said the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spent weeks trying to determine the bacteria’s strain, Salmonella Typhimurium, and linking it to like cases.

“It’s an unusual genetic fingerprint, that’s what triggered us to start looking into it,” Sears said. “It has some antibiotic resistance. It’s not a strain that we’ve seen before.”

The illnesses in Maine occurred between late October and late November. All four people have recovered.

“I think you pay attention to your freezer, see what’s in there,” Sears said. “We want to put it in perspective: This is four cases in a large state that probably ate a lot more ground beef than that. Not every single lot is contaminated. This is an extremely cautious public health approach to make sure that nobody else gets sick.”

Norton said the fresh ground beef had not yet been traced to a source and the USDA is continuing to investigate. He didn’t know how many pounds of meat were subject to the recall. Much of it has already likely been eaten.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include nausea, fever and chills, and it can be fatal to people with weak immune systems. Customers with questions were pointed toward the Hannaford Customer Information Center at 1-800-213-9040, option 6.

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