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After an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, the fast food giant is looking to reassure customers that its beef is safe.
Although onions are believed to be the culprit behind the recent outbreak, the Colorado Department of Agriculture carried out testing of the beef used to source the patties in the popular burgers and found “no detection of E. coli in the samples taken,” the company said in an update Sunday.
McDonald’s added that the “issue appears to be contained to a particular ingredient and geography,” and that it remains “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.”
Following the results of the testing, McDonald’s said it will once again begin selling Quarter Pounders later this week. It had paused the sale of the burgers “out of an abundance of caution” last week at about one-fifth of its more than 14,000 U.S. locations.
The 900 restaurants that historically received slivered onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility, where the potentially contaminated vegetables were believed to come from, will resume sales of Quarter Pounders without the onions, McDonald’s said. Those restaurants are in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, as well as parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.
Although Taylor Farms has not detected E. coli in its onions, the company has decided to halt distribution as a precaution. The recall involves several types of onions, including peeled whole onions and yellow diced onions.
McDonald’s said it has stopped sourcing onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility indefinitely.
A notice from U.S. Foods (USFD+0.71%), the largest supplier of food service operations in the U.S., advises restaurants to stop using onions from Taylor Farms and to “DESTROY” any remaining stock. Sysco (SYY-0.21%), another leading distributor in the industry, has issued similar guidance to its customers.
So far, 75 cases have been reported across 13 states between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11, resulting in several hospitalizations, one death, and at least one lawsuit. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the true number of people who were affected by the outbreak is likely much higher than the number reported.
The E. coli outbreak underscores the importance of food safety and proper handling in the supply chain, especially given the scale of McDonald’s operations.
The loss of the chain’s popular item could lead to a significant drop in sales, which has already prompted financial firm Baird to downgrade its rating on McDonald’s stock. With McDonald’s set to release quarterly earnings on Tuesday, the implications of the outbreak could reverberate throughout the fast food industry.
— Francisco Velasquez contributed to this article.