McDonald's has removed the Quarter Pounder from about one-fifth of its U.S. stores after a deadly E. coli outbreak has been linked to the popular burger, the company announced Wednesday.
Federal authorities announced Tuesday that one person has died in Colorado and 49 people have become ill in 10 states in the Midwest and West.
The nation's largest fast-food chain announced Wednesday that it believes the cause of the outbreak was the shredded onions on top of Quarter Pounders.
The company added that the unnamed single supplier of onions has stopped supplying vegetables to McDonald's restaurants.
Officials said they could not rule out contaminated ground meat as the culprit, although they have not broken ties with beef suppliers.
Nevertheless, McDonald's has removed Quarter Pounders from about 2,700 stores in 12 states, according to an update Wednesday. Center for Disease Control.
The FDA and CDC warned McDonald's about the food-related illness late last week, according to a spokesperson.
But the first case report linked to McDonald's dates back to September 27th (almost a month ago), leaving some food safety experts scratching their heads as to why it took so long to alert the public. are.
“The flow of information is unfolding more slowly than usual,” food safety expert James Marsden told the Post on Wednesday.
“Normally, an increase in reported cases would raise alarm; [government] They will warn the public sooner. ”
A McDonald's spokesperson said the CDC interviewed 18 people with confirmed cases, and 12 of them said they had eaten Quarter Pounders before becoming ill.
A CDC spokesperson told the Post, “On October 10, the Colorado Department of Health notified CDC of an increase in E. coli infections in the state, and laboratory tests indicate that it is an outbreak in multiple states. “The CDC began an investigation on October 15th because it was confirmed that there was no such thing.” It's just a localized outbreak in Colorado. Investigators are working as quickly as possible to identify the contaminated ingredients. ”
Meanwhile, McDonald's franchisees are bracing for a downturn in sales, which will worsen as a result of McDonald's promotion of value meals this year.
The company's shares fell more than 5% on Wednesday.
“This is going to impact all of us as people are hesitant to come into our stores,” said one franchise operator, who requested anonymity.
A McDonald's spokesperson declined to say whether the company's customer traffic has been affected by the outbreak.
McDonald's sells more than 2 million Quarter Pounders a day, the franchisee said, adding that if the outbreak were to spread “widespread, there would be tens of thousands of people infected.”
The company is “very, very, very cautious” about removing Quarter Pounders from its restaurants, the franchisee added.
