Pizzas suspected of being contaminated with E. coli bacteria have been pulled from freezers at stores throughout the Black Hills.

"All those pizzas were pulled immediately. They were off the shelves by 5 p.m. Thursday," Kris Staaf, director of Public Affairs for Safeway in Denver, said.

"Not only do we put out an e-mail, but we follow that up with a phone call. We make sure every store has pulled the product," Staaf said.

Rapid City's Safeway stores are part of the Denver division of Safeway.

General Mills on Thursday recalled almost 5 million frozen pizzas sold under the Totino's and Jeno's label because of possible E. coli contamination.

To get a refund:

The company asks consumers to throw away recalled pizzas. They can get replacements by clipping the bar code from the box and mailing it with their name and address to Totino's/Jeno's, P.O. Box 200-Pizza, Minneapolis, MN 55440-0200.

The problem may have come from pepperoni on pizzas produced at a General Mills plant in Ohio, the suburban Minneapolis-based company said. They said the pepperoni itself came from a separate supplier, not produced at the plant itself.

State and federal authorities have been investigating 21 E. coli illnesses in 10 states over about four months.

Eight of the cases were reported in Tennessee, with the other cases found in smaller numbers in South Dakota, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Nine of the 21 people reported eating Totino's or Jeno's pizza with pepperoni topping at some point before becoming ill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that eight of the victims have been hospitalized, and four have developed a type of kidney failure.

"We took action on that basis as a precaution, because of the possibility that a link might exist," General Mills spokesman Tom Forsythe said. "However, to date we have found no E. coli in our plant, and we have found no E. coli in our products."

General Mills said it is cooperating fully with the investigation, which is continuing. The company said it is not naming the pepperoni supplier because the source of the E. coli is still under investigation.

General Mills said it was recalling about 414,000 cases of pizza and that each case contains 12 pizzas.

Symptoms of E. coli can include stomach cramps and diarrhea. People typically are ill for two to five days but can develop complications including kidney failure.

In late September, the Topps Meat Co. recalled 21.7 million pounds of frozen hamburger patties after 40 people in eight states got sick from contaminated beef believed to have been imported from Canada. The New Jersey-based company shut down several days later.

The specific products in the recall, with SKU, include:

* Totino's Party Supreme, 42800-10700

* Totino's Three Meat, 42800-10800

* Totino's Pepperoni, 42800-11400

* Totino's Pepperoni, 42800-92114

* Totino's Classic Pepperoni, 42800-11402

* Totino's Pepperoni Trio, 42800-72157

* Totino's Party Combo, 42800-11600

* Totino's Combo, 42800-92116

* Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Supreme, 35300-00561

* Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Pepperoni, 35300-00572

* Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Combo, 35300-00576