People across the U.S. West and Midwest have been infected by the E. coli outbreak after dining at McDonald’s. The problem seems to have stem from the popular Quarter-Pound burgers. The outbreak has infected approximately 50 people and even resulted in one death. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have also been 10 serious hospitalizations due to the outbreak.
There was previous confusion regarding what part of the burger contained the virus. The CDC and fast food chains were scrutinizing the company’s supplies of sliver onions and beef patties. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had its bets on the onions being the source, while state partners were testing samples of the beef for E. coli.
It has now been confirmed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it was the batch of onions supplied by Taylor Farms that contained the virus. Since that has been identified, US Foods, one of the largest U.S. suppliers of food service operations claims that McDonald’s has recalled several batches of yellow onions produced in the Colorado facility.
There have been E.Coli outbreaks at fast food chains in the past, one such being the incident that caused the deaths of 4 children at Jack in the Box in 1993, these incidents have hampered sales at big fast-food restaurants since customers avoid them fearing illness.
To do so, the fast food chain has announced that it would be pulling the Quater-Poud burger off the menu in 1/5th of its fast food chains in the country which is around 14,000 U.S. restaurants.
This however has not been enough to abscond the company of its guilt. Eric Stelly who ate food from a Greeley, Colorado, McDonald’s and tested positive for the virus in question a few days later has decided to sue the company for more than $50,000 in damages. He claims that the company was negligent in handling and care of the food.
Ron Simon, the attorney representing Stelly has said that the case would be brought to court alongside that of 15 other people who were impacted by the outbreak.
Taylor Farms itself has initiated a voluntary recall and food distributors including US Foods and Sysco Corp have been helping the company spread the word to customers.
Burger King is another big fast food chain that gets some of its supplies from Taylor Farms, around 5% of the company’s stores use ingredients from them, given this situation the fast food giant has decided to remove fresh onions from all its menu items for the foreseeable future. This decision has been taken even though Burger King has not been contacted yet by health authorities or had any illnesses.
As a precautionary measure, Yum Brands which operates Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC chains has also gone ahead and announced that it will be removing onions from from its menu items.
