A double quarter pounder with cheese and fries is arranged at a McDonald's restaurant in El Sobrante, California, United States, on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
McDonald's The Quarter Pounder burger will return to nearly 900 restaurants this week after the fast food giant pulled the menu item linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak.
The affected restaurants — roughly a fifth of the company's U.S. footprint — will serve the Quarter Pounder burger without sliced onions for the foreseeable future as health authorities continue their investigation into the source of the outbreak. This change will affect restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, and parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.
“The issue appears to be limited to a specific ingredient and geography, and we remain very confident that any contaminated product associated with this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald's restaurants,” said Cesar Pena, chief supply chain officer. McDonald's operations in North America, according to a message sent to the company's system in the United States.
Colorado Department of Agriculture testing did not detect E. coli in samples of beef patties taken from restaurants in the area, according to Pena. The agency does not plan to conduct further testing of the company's beef.
McDonald's, one month
Instead, health authorities focused on sliced onions used at the Quarter Pounders restaurant as the likely suspect in the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration is still investigating whether onions produced by Taylor Farms are responsible. McDonald's has stopped using Taylor Farms as a supplier of this ingredient indefinitely.
McDonald's is now asking its beef suppliers to produce new supplies of the fresh beef patties used in its Quarter Pounders, Pena wrote in a letter sent to the company's U.S. system. Customers can expect to see the menu item back in all restaurants next week, although this will happen on a rolling basis, depending on deliveries and resupply.
An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald's has led to 75 cases in 13 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Of the 61 patients with available information, 22 were hospitalized, and two people developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, called hemolytic uremic syndrome. The agency also said earlier that an elderly person had died in Colorado.
Based on cases reported so far, the outbreak occurred between September 27 and October 11. Over the course of two weeks, McDonald's typically sells approximately 1 million pounds in the affected area, according to company spokesmen.
McDonald's US President Joe Erlinger apologized to customers feeling “sick, afraid or uncertain” in a video posted on the company's website.
“On behalf of the McDonald's system, I want you to hear from me: We are sorry,” he said.
McDonald's is expected to report its third-quarter earnings before the bell on Tuesday. The company's shares have fallen 7% since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the E. coli outbreak to its restaurants.
