The U.S. Department of Agriculture comes to consumers’ aid with a new measure meant to help them figure out whether they have bought potentially contaminated food.

On Friday, the USDA announced that it will publish the retailers’ names on the Agriculture Department Web site. The new rule is expected to be published next week and will take effect 30 days later.

The new measure was triggered by the largest meat recall in U.S. history, which happened on February 17. The recall was made by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. and involved 143 million pounds of meat.

Under the current rule, the USDA makes public the name of the establishment recalling the meat, a description of the recalled product and any identifying brand names or product codes, but consumers are not informed on where it is being sold.

This is something the new rule adds to the equation. This way, consumers will be able to know when their health is threatened without creating unnecessary confusion and fear, Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer said.

“By providing lists of retail outlets during recalls, USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service will improve public health protection.”

The new measure will apply only to Class I recalls, in which there is a “good likelihood” that a consumer will become ill or die if tainted food is eaten. This drew some disappointment from behalf of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) who said such measure should apply to Class II recalls too, in which there is only a “remote possibility” that the meat poses a health risk to consumers.

“The next step should be to apply this rule to all recalls,” DeLauro, who chairs the House appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, said in a statement.

The announcement comes on the heels of two major recalls: one occurred last month involving tomatoes, which have been blamed for infecting more than a 1,000 people with Salmonella bacteria and the other occurred this month when a Nebraska firm recalled more than 5 million pounds of beef being accompanied by an Ohio retailer which recalled an “undetermined amount” of ground beef products, both because of suspected E. coli contamination.

The decision was welcomed by the Consumer Federation of America, which called the announcement “a welcome change that will protect consumers,” the Associated Press reports.

On the other hand, the meat industry opposed any retailer disclosure saying that the change may hurt consumers more than helping them because information may be incomplete or out-of-date.