The Centers for Disease Control and United States Food and Drug Administration today declared that their investigations into the E. coli outbreak at McDonald’s have been closed, with no new illnesses reported.
“Today’s announcements from the CDC and FDA provide certainty and validation from leading health authorities, which will be meaningful for our customers and communities. While the issue had been fully contained — and any contaminated product associated with this issue had been removed from our supply chain as of October 22, 2024 – it can now be classified as ‘closed’ and remediated,” the company said.
The outbreak was first reported by the chain on Oct. 22 and an early investigation from several health agencies determined it was linked to raw, slivered onions supplied by Taylor Farms. The chain stopped sourcing onions from the facility indefinitely, but not before the outbreak sickened at least 104 people in 14 states, with at least one fatality. There has also been a legal fallout from the crisis, including a class action lawsuit.
A company spokesperson noted they couldn’t comment on legal actions or disclose how much the outbreak impacted sales or traffic, but McDonald’s did reaffirm it is spending $100 million on recovery efforts, including $65 million for franchisees in the 900 affected restaurants and $35 million on marketing efforts to “earn customers’ trust back.”
Data from Placer.ai shows that McDonald’s visits dropped by 6.4% on the day after the outbreak, and 24% in Colorado, where the issue was most prevalent. During McDonald’s third-quarter earnings call in late October, chief financial officer Ian Borden said there had been an “impact in the U.S. business as a result of the food safety incident,” and sales and customer visits dropped. But, executives noted they didn’t expect it to have a “material impact” on the business during the remainder of the year.
On Tuesday, a company spokesperson said the company has some of the strictest food safety standards and protocols in the industry and will continue to focus on those standards consistently.
McDonald’s E. coli outbreak timeline
- October 22: McDonald’s informs the public about its E. coli outbreak while removing slivered onions from impacted restaurants, pausing distribution of slivered onions, and temporarily stopping the sale of its Quarter Pounders in impacted areas
- October 27: McDonald’s identifies an alternative slivered onion supplier for approximately 900 restaurants and resumes normal operations and Quarter Pounder sales; Colorado Department of Agriculture completes testing of all beef samples, which were found to be negative for E. coli
- November 13: CDC maintains that the public health risk has remained “very low” for three weeks
- November 14: FDA confirms no food safety concern at McDonald’s restaurants related to the outbreak
- December 3: CDC and FDA close their investigations and confirm the outbreak is over
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
