The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that meat giant Cargill is initiating a voluntary recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey produced at a plant in Arkansas following a salmonella outbreak. The meat has been linked to one death in California and at least 76 illnesses across the country.

According to CBS News: "The CDC said Monday that cultures of ground turkey from four retail locations between March 7 and June 27 showed contamination with the same strain of salmonella, though those samples were not specifically linked to the illnesses. The agency said preliminary information showed that three of those samples have been linked to the same production establishment but it did not name the retailers or the manufacturers."

In a written statement, Steve Willardsen, the president of Cargill's turkey processing business said: “It is regrettable that people may have become ill from eating one of our ground turkey products and, for anyone who did, we are truly sorry."

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agriculture Department are still investigating the source of the outbreak. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the government hopes to identify the source "very, very" soon. The Associated Press reported:

Vilsack says the investigation is complicated in part because ground turkey can be in many products.

He emphasizes the key to safe ground turkey is cooking the food properly and reading the labels. If consumers have doubts, Vilsack says they should throw the product away.

So far, 26 states have been hit by the salmonella outbreak, according to the CDC. They are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.