McDonald’s worked Wednesday to reassure customers that its U.S. restaurants are safe as federal investigators tried to determine the cause deadly E. coli outbreak linked to the fast food giant Quarter pounder burgers.
McDonald’s drew Quarter Pounders of a fifth of his American stores Tuesday as a result of the outbreak, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said had sickened at least 49 people in 10 states. One person died and ten had to be hospitalized the CDC.
A preliminary investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggested that fresh chopped onions, served raw on Quarter Pounder burgers, are a likely source of contamination. the pollution. McDonald’s also serves raw, sliced onions on one of its breakfast sandwiches, but that sandwich is not available in the affected stores. Other burgers, such as the Big MacUse diced, cooked onions.
McDonald’s says it is looking for a new regional supplier for fresh onions. In the meantime, Quarter Pounders were removed from menus in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming and parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Adriean Madden stopped at a McDonald’s outside Denver for his usual afternoon snack on Wednesday, but then decided against it. He said he wasn’t sure how E. coli spreads or contaminates other foods, and he thinks McDonald’s should be more forthcoming.
“This will impact my decision to come to McDonald’s in the future,” Madden said. “I feel like the information is not that widespread. I didn’t see any signs on the door, and then I saw vehicles driving through the driveway like nothing was happening.”
Colorado has had the most reported cases of any state to date, and it is where the only death involving an older adult occurred.
McDonald’s said it has been working closely with federal food safety regulators since late last week, when it was alerted to the possible outbreak. The company said the extent of the problem and the popularity of its products have complicated efforts to identify the source of contamination.
McDonald’s has more than 14,000 U.S. stores and serves 1 million Quarter Pounders every two weeks in the affected 12-state area.
McDonald’s is known for its strict rules food safety guidelines and protocols, says Chris Gaulke, professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. The company announced on Wednesday that the supplier regularly tests its onions for E. coli, for example.
“Given the amount of food they consume, the fact that this rarely happens at McDonald’s is a testament to the effort they take,” Gaulke said.
But some experts wondered why McDonald’s simply stopped selling one sandwich and didn’t close any restaurants for further investigation.
“A good practice would have been to close all restaurants,” said Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who has sued businesses over food poisoning outbreaks. “Until we definitively know which product made people sick, consumers should be aware.”
Marler said cross-contamination remains a potential possibility at the affected restaurants until they are thoroughly cleaned.
When asked why McDonald’s hasn’t closed any restaurants, nothing said the government’s investigation found there were problems with its food preparation practices. In an interview on the Today show Wednesday, McDonald’s U.S. president Joe Erlinger also said it is likely the contaminated product has already passed through the company’s supply chain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the outbreak late Tuesday. It said infections were reported in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming between September 27 and October 11.
State and local public health officials interviewed people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick. Of the 18 people interviewed Tuesday, all reported eating at McDonald’s, and 16 people reported eating a beef hamburger. Twelve reported eating a Quarter Pounder.
McDonald’s said this is unlikely the beef in the Quarter Pounder was the source, because it comes from multiple suppliers and is cooked to a temperature high enough to kill E. coli.
McDonald’s said initial findings indicate some of the reported illnesses were linked to onions from a single supplier, which the company did not name. According to McDonald’s, the onions are cleaned and sliced by the supplier and then packaged for use on individual Quarter Pounders.
The incubation period for E. coli is only a few days, so the illness should quickly become apparent to anyone affected, says Donald Schaffner, a food safety expert at Rutgers University. “If you ate these burgers in September and now it’s mid-October and you haven’t gotten sick, then there’s probably nothing to worry about,” he said.
E. coli bacteria are housed in the intestines of animals and are found in the environment. Infections can cause serious illness, including fever, stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. People who develop symptoms of E. coli poisoning should seek health care immediately and tell the provider what they ate.
The type of bacteria involved in the McDonald’s case causes about 74,000 infections in the U.S. each year, leading to more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 61 deaths annually, according to the CDC. Overall, E. coli infections in 2023 were lower than in recent years and cases of serious kidney injuries caused by the bacteria remained stable, according to the latest federal data.
Outbreaks at chain restaurants are rare, but they happen.
In 2020, Chipotle agreed to pay a record $25 million fine to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people with E. coli between 2015 and 2018. In that case, poor safety practices, such as not storing food at the proper temperature to prevent the growth of pathogens, could have been to blame.
In 2006, Taco Bell ordered the removal of green onions from its restaurants nationwide after samples taken by researchers appeared to contain an aggressive strain of E. coli. The outbreak sickened at least 71 people.
“The worst thing you can have in a restaurant is a food safety problem. It’s the equivalent of an airline losing its plane,” said Aaron Allen, restaurant consultant and founder of Aaron Allen and Associates.
But Allen said McDonald’s has enough experience and safety protocols that it won’t suffer long-term damage from the outbreak.
“No one would be better equipped to mitigate and respond to this than McDonald’s,” he said.
Shares of McDonald’s fell 5% on Wednesday.
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AP Health writer JoNel Aleccia in Temecula, California, and AP Video journalist Thomas Peipert in Edgewater, Colorado, contributed to this story.
