The head of the French health agency Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, Daniel Lenoir said: "We are certain it's not the same bacterial strain that was identified on sprouts in Germany." .
The beef for the burgers came from farms in France, Germany and the Netherlands, according to SEB, the French manufacturer that supplied the meat.
Frédéric Vincent, spokesman for the European commission, said the outbreak in France was not as serious as the one in Germany. He said the strain found in France was "discovered regularly". There were 3,500 cases of E coli in the EU last year, he said, 93 of which were in France.
Vincent said the commission was waiting for more information, keen to avoid a repeat of the situation when Spanish cucumbers were wrongly blamed for the German E coli outbreak, costing Spanish farmers significant income.