Four children died and hundreds were sickened in Washington state after eating tainted hamburgers.
The Jack-in-the-Box restaurant chain said the tainted meat was contaminated with e-coli bacteria at a meat processing plant that supplied its hamburgers.
Agriculture Department officials said the deaths and illnesses, which affected at least 300 people, could have been prevented by cooking the hamburgers to 155 degrees fahrenheit.
New federal rules requiring hamburgers to be cooked to that temperature were issued. In addition, the Agriculture Department added 160 meat inspectors.
Jack-in-the-Box agreed to institute new precautions, pay the victims' medical bills, and donate $100,000 to a foundation to assist children infected with e-coli.
