Beginning 4 June, the meat industry will have to test the following six additional strains - E. coli O26, O111, O103, O121, O45 and O145 in beef trimmings.
In addition, selling raw beef trimmings and non-intact beef products contaminated with any of these strains would be illegal.
Till date, the meat industry had to test only for one strain of the pathogen known as E. coli O157:H7, which is the most common cause of foodborne illness in the US.
Over the years, while the number of foodborne illnesses from E. coli O157:H7 have decreased, there has been a rise in the number of people falling ill from the other E.coli strains, which are found in foods such as beef and lettuce.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), non-E. coli O157:H7 strains cause about 112,000 illnesses every year and of those, approximately 36,700 are considered to be linked to beef.
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the new regulation is needed to safeguard Americans from foodborne illnesses.
"We cannot ignore the evidence that these pathogens are a threat in our nation's food supply," Vilsack added.
Food safety advocates have been urging the Obama administration to expand testing; however, the meat industry criticised the proposal stating that it would lead to higher costs.
The new regulation will require meat industry to conduct new tests on beef trimmings - which are used to make ground beef, and later the testing would be extended to ground beef and other cuts.
In 2011, the US food safety inspectors collected about 2,700 samples from meat processing plants for testing, and under the new regulation, the number of samples would not change, but each sample would be screened for six additional strains.
E. coli bacteria can lead to diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure, and it can cause serious illness in very young, elderly, and those with weak immune systems.
