Cal-Maine Foods, the nation's leading egg seller and distributor, has ordered a recall of 288, 000 eggs for fear of salmonella contamination, health officials said on Tuesday.

The eggs were distributed in California, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, but there was no confirmed report of infections in connection with the recalled eggs, officials from the California Department of Public Health said.

Cal-Maine Foods said in a statement that it ordered the recall after being alerted by the federal Food and Drug Administration that its sample eggs tested positive in a routine test.

The company said it bought the eggs from Ohio Fresh Eggs.

The potentially contaminated eggs were packaged under four brands: James Farm, Springfield Grocer, Sunny Meadow and Sun Valley, Cal-Maine Foods said.

The company said customers should dispose of the eggs or return them to the retailer where they were purchased to receive a full refund.

A statement issued by Ohio Fresh Eggs indicates that eggs had been held back from its Cronton, Ohio, barn where the tests were positive for Salmonella. Later discussions with the FDA brought to light that some eggs from the site had been sent to a distributor, presumably Cal-Maine.

"Ohio Fresh Eggs sincerely regrets the error made on our farm, and we apologize to our customer and to consumers who may have purchased the eggs," company officials said in the prepared statement. "We are redoubling our efforts to ensure thorough and ongoing training of our workers so that the situation is not repeated."

There have been several recalls of eggs in the nation this year. In August, two Iowa egg farms -- Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms -- recalled 550 million eggs when the products were linked to as many as 1,600 illnesses.