One day after a multistate E. Coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers was publicized, a major supplier of onions in that region has issued a recall.
Though federal regulators have not confirmed the source of the outbreak, which has so far killed one person and sickened 49, initial investigations have suggested that the fresh slivered onions served mainly atop the Quarter Pounder were a “likely source of contamination.”
Taylor Farms, the sole supplier of those onions to the affected McDonald’s locations in 10 states, issued a recall Wednesday of several yellow onion products because of “potential E. coli contamination,” according to a notice from U.S. Foods, which distributes the products to many restaurants.
The notice instructed restaurants to immediately stop serving the specified onions — diced, peeled and whole — and destroy them.
The items were voluntarily recalled by Taylor Farms Colorado out of an “abundance of caution,” a spokeswoman for U.S. Foods said in an email. Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
McDonald’s and the Food and Drug Administration said preliminary reviews linked the outbreak to those slivered onions, but health officials and McDonald’s said they had not ruled out possible contamination of the quarter-pound beef patties used for the popular menu item. The Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also investigating the source of the contamination.
The outbreak has sickened people across the Mountain West, though most cases have been clustered in Colorado.
McDonald’s has stopped using slivered onions, and has halted sales of Quarter Pounders at restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma. McDonald’s has said that its other hamburger items are not affected by the recall.
E. coli outbreaks are not uncommon in the United States, said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.
Every year, there are between 20 to 50 E. coli outbreaks, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C. said. In 2024 alone, 13 cases have been linked to organic walnuts and 11 cases were linked to raw Cheddar cheese.
What worries experts about this outbreak is that this particular strain of the bacteria can cause a life-threatening condition called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome which damages blood vessels in the kidneys.
The condition is most common in young children and there is no treatment to stop the disease from progressing once it has started. Federal health officials said one of the people hospitalized with the disease was a child. Of the 49 people with a confirmed case of E. coli, the youngest was 13.
“If you had to pick the characteristics you would not want to have in your food-borne disease group, this is a good set,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.
One silver lining of this outbreak, Dr. Kowalcyk said, is that parents don’t generally buy the large hamburgers for young children.
Dr. Osterholm said that while beef used to be the frequent source of E. coli outbreaks (dangerous strains of the bacteria often lives in cow intestines), several high-profile outbreaks have sparked food safety changes that has made beef a less likely culprit.
For example, after a 1993 E. coli outbreak related to undercooked Jack in the Box hamburger patties — which sickened hundreds, killed four children and left others with kidney failure — the F.D.A. raised the recommended internal temperature for hamburgers.
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