McDonald’s says E. coli outbreak contained, Quarter Pounder coming back

McDonald’s says an E. coli outbreak which sickened dozens of people in the United States has been contained, allowing the production of Quarter Pounders to resume. Sales in affected states are expected to resume in the next week.

Cesar Piña, chief supply chain officer at McDonald’s in North America, said the Quarter Pounder patties had been ruled out as the source of the outbreak, which is known to have killed at least one person.

“The issue appears to be contained to a particular ingredient and geography, and we remain 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,” Piña said.

Piña said the number of cases could still rise in the days ahead, citing increased awareness among the public and the fact that it takes health officials up to four weeks to confirm if a sick person is part of the multi-state outbreak.

Investigators have focused on slivered onions from Taylor Farms, a California-based food producer, as the possible source of the outbreak. The company recalled some of its raw onion products due to possible contamination.

Earlier on Sunday, the Colorado Department of Agriculture said fresh and frozen beef patties collected from McDonald’s locations associated with the outbreak had all tested negative for E. coli.

“Based on the above information, we are now confident in asking our beef suppliers to produce a new supply of fresh beef patties for the impacted areas,” Piña said. “We will resume distribution of that fresh supply and the Quarter Pounder is expected to be available in all restaurants in the coming week. This will be on a rolling basis based on delivery and resupply operations.”

The 900 restaurants which historically received onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility will resume selling Quarter Pounders without the slivered onions. Those restaurants are in Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.

McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger also apologized to customers for the E. coli outbreak.

“I know that our relationship is built on trust. You trust us to serve you safe food every time,” he said. “For those customers affected, you have my commitment that, led by our values: we will make this right.”

As of Friday, at least 75 cases of E. coli were linked to the outbreak, including 22 people who were hospitalized and 1 person who died. The most recent known illness started on October 10, according to the CDC.