McDonald’s on Wednesday tried to assuage concerns about the safety of its food following an E. coli outbreak potentially linked to the chain and reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week.
The CDC initially reported the outbreak to the company last week, which has since grown to 49 cases and one fatality across 10 states. The Food and Drug Administration’s early assessment of the source of the outbreak is said to be the slivered onions used on McDonald’s signature Quarter Pounder burgers, which have since been removed from restaurants in affected areas in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, equating to nearly one-fifth of the company’s domestic system.
The investigation has homed in on the QPC’s uncooked onions because they come from a single supplier in the area, while its beef patties come from multiple suppliers and the cooking process is likely to kill bacteria. McDonald’s paused its distribution of the onions and asked local restaurants to remove the ingredient.
Also, on Wednesday, McDonald’s supplier Taylor Farms recalled yellow onions produced in its Colorado facility. The company said the recall was done “out of an abundance of caution” and it hasn’t yet found any traces of E. coli.
“We continue to work closely with the FDA and CDC during this ongoing investigation,” the company said in a statement.
Further, US Foods, a major restaurant distributor, sent a recall notice about Taylor Farms’ onions, Bloomberg reported. The distributor listed several onion products that should be pulled at this time.
One of the restaurant chains affected by US Foods’ recall is Colorado-based Illegal Pete’s, which disposed of the onions and other foods prepared with the onions. Notably, no cases of E. coli have been linked to Illegal Pete’s, which operates 14 restaurants in Colorado and Arizona. A news outlet from Denver also reported that at least one Taco Bell has removed onions from the menu “out of an abundance of caution.”
About 48 million people are sickened by foodborne diseases, including E. coli, every year, according to the CDC, leading to about 3,000 fatalities.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
