McDonald’s provided another update Sunday on the continuing investigation of its E. coli outbreak last week. The update comes as the Colorado Department of Agriculture completed its testing over the weekend confirming there was no detection of E. coli in the samples of beef patties from restaurants in the impacted area.
No further testing is planned for beef patties.
The source of the outbreak is likely slivered onions supplied by a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., which were removed from the chain’s supply chain on Oct. 22 and are out of all McDonald’s restaurants. The Food and Drug Administration is continuing its investigation into the facility.
As of today, McDonald’s has decided to stop sourcing onions from the Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility indefinitely.
With the Quarter Pounder beef patties ruled out, McDonald’s has asked its beef suppliers to produce a new supply of fresh beef patties for the impacted areas to “provide reassurance,” according to a spokesperson. Distribution of the fresh supply will resume and the Quarter Pounder is expected to be available in all 900 affected restaurants in the coming week on a rolling basis based on delivery and resupply operations. The restaurants are located in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.
Those Quarter Pounders, however, will not include slivered onions.
McDonald’s also noted that health officials expect more people to seek medical attention for E. coli symptoms and case counts to grow. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms usually start three to four days after consumption of contaminated food, and it can take three to four weeks for public health agencies to confirm if a person’s illness stems from the outbreak. McDonald’s said public health agencies will “likely focus” on patients who visited the chain, which could yield more cases being linked to the company, despite a broader distribution of the slivered onions that has also led to recalls at Yum Brands and Burger King, among other concepts.
McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger has also provided the following message, which included an apology to customers. In it, he promised the company will "make things right:"
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