US probes supplier as possible source of McDonald’s E coli outbreak

Longmont, Colorado — Fresh onions are the likely source of an E coli outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants that has sickened 49 people and killed one, the US department of agriculture said late on Wednesday, alarming some McDonald’s customers and other fast-food chains using onions as an ingredient.

Taylor Farms, a supplier for McDonald’s, the biggest US burger chain, recalled several batches of yellow onions produced in a Colorado facility, according to a recall memo on Wednesday by US Foods, one of the largest suppliers of food service operations in the country.

The US Foods recall alert does not mention whether US Foods supplies onions to McDonald’s.

Fresh onions are an ingredient in McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, and McDonald’s pulled the Quarter Pounder from its menu in Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, and in parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

The McDonald’s outbreak has killed one and sickened nearly 50 people so far.

McDonald’s shares were up 0.8% at $301.06 on Thursday afternoon. They had closed down 5.1% at $298.57 on Wednesday. 

McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said on Wednesday the fast-food chain needed to rebuild trust with the public after it pulled the item off its menu at a fifth of its 14,000 US restaurants.

Past outbreaks of the bacterial disease have hampered sales at big fast-food restaurants, as customers shun the affected chains for fear of illness.

The E coli O157:H7 strain that led to the McDonald's outbreak is the same as a strain linked to a 1993 incident at Jack in the Box that killed four children. It can cause “very serious disease”, especially for the elderly, children and people who are immunocompromised, said Shari Shea, director of food safety at the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

US food safety attorney Bill Marler, who represented a victim in the Jack in the Box outbreak, said this is a relatively large and serious outbreak for which McDonald’s will face “a lot” of liability for the contamination.

Yum Brands said on Thursday that it was removing fresh onions from its menus “out of an abundance of caution” at some of its KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.

Off menu

Restaurant Brands International, parent of McDonald’s rival Burger King, had removed onions from its menu at least one Burger King location in Colorado, which was at the centre of the McDonald’s outbreak.

“We’ve been told by corporate to not use any onions going forward for the foreseeable future,” Maria Gonzales, the on-duty manager inside a Burger King in Longmont, Colorado, said on Wednesday. “They’re off our menu.”

Neither McDonald’s nor Restaurant Brands International immediately responded to requests for comment on Thursday.

David Tarantino, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, downgraded McDonald’s shares to “neutral” late on Wednesday.

“We are concerned that reports of an E coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s restaurants in multiple US states could pose a major threat to consumer sentiment” and thus hurt US comparable-store sales, he said.

In the immediate aftermath of the McDonald’s outbreak, many people in Colorado were still eating at the US giant, according to checks by Reuters. Some were avoiding the hamburgers.

The outbreak of E coli was first reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late September.

McDonald’s has moved quickly to try to contain the damage while also trying to reassure customers of its efforts. That may be critical — previous outbreaks in 2015 at Chipotle Mexican Grill and in 1993 at Jack in the Box caused sales at those companies to drop sharply for several quarters.

The USDA on Wednesday said that one of its state partners was also testing samples of beef for E coli.

Reuters