McDonald’s is returning Quarter Pounders to the menu at locations where sales of the hamburgers had been paused amid an E. coli outbreak that left dozens sick and one person dead, after beef was ruled out as the source of contamination linked to the sandwiches.
McDonald’s senior vice president and supply chain chief for North America, Cesar Piña, said in an update that the fast food giant was informed over the weekend by the Colorado Department of Agriculture that the agency had completed its testing of beef patties from restaurants in the state and found no detection of E. coli.
After overlaying the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) epidemiological data and McDonald’s supply chain traceback data, the company has now ruled out beef as the source.
McDonald’s has now told its beef suppliers to resume making the fresh patties and expects Quarter Pounders to be available again at all stores over the coming week – however, slivered onions will still not yet be available as a topping in the locations impacted by the outbreak.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating whether Taylor Farms, which supplied the slivered onions to McDonald’s in the areas where the E. coli outbreak occurred, is the source of the contamination. McDonald’s removed beef and onions from its supply chain after the CDC informed them of the outbreak, and Taylor Farms issued a recall of yellow onions last week.
McDonald’s said the 900 locations that previously received slivered onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility will not have fresh onions available when the Quarter Pounder returns to the menu.
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McDonald’s said last week that it had stopped sourcing onions from the location indefinitely, and Piña said McDonald’s understands that onions from that facility “were distributed well beyond McDonald’s System to other quick service restaurants and food service providers.”
Last week, Yum! Brands pulled fresh onions from some Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC locations out of caution, due to the outbreak.
The impacted McDonald’s locations are in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.
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The CDC said in its latest update Friday that 75 people have been infected with the E. coli O157:H7 strain across 13 states as of Thursday. One person’s death has been linked to the outbreak, and another 22 have been hospitalized.
