McDonald’s on Sunday announced that Quarter Pounders will again be on its menu after testing ruled out beef patties as the source of the E. coli outbreak that killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states.
The fast-food chain’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, Cesar Pina, stated, “We remain very confident that any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald’s restaurants,” after the outbreak linked to quarter pounder hamburgers sickened nearly 75 people and caused one fatality, New York Times reported.
The company confirmed that Quarter Pounders would not include raw slivered onions, which federal regulators suspect to be the likely cause of the outbreak.
McDonald’s referred to tests conducted in Colorado, the state with the highest number of reported cases. The Colorado Agriculture Department’s website stated, “The CDA Microbiology Laboratory analyzed dozens of subsamples from all the lots and all samples were found to be negative for E. coli. CDA has completed all beef testing and does not anticipate receiving further samples.”
According to McDonald’s spokesmen, Colorado health officials tested beef samples from the two suppliers that provided patties to the 900 affected locations across a dozen states. The company is not aware of any other state health agency currently testing the beef patties for E. coli.
Regarding the slivered onions, McDonald’s announced on Friday that it would stop purchasing onions from the Colorado Springs site of its major regional supplier, Taylor Farms, a multistate producer of vegetables and fruits. Last week, Taylor Farms recalled several yellow onion products, including diced and slivered, due to “potential E. coli contamination.”
E. coli is eliminated in beef when properly cooked. The McDonald’s Quarter Pounder is typically served with raw, slivered onions; affected restaurants will serve the burgers without these onions, Reuters reported.
McDonald’s has removed the Quarter Pounder from approximately one-fifth of its U.S. restaurants, including those in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
Previous E. coli outbreaks have negatively impacted sales at large fast-food restaurants as customers avoid the affected chains.