Onion recall linked to E. coli and McDonald’s spreads to other fast-food chains in US

Updated Oct 25, 2024, 08:38 PM

NEW YORK - A sweeping onion recall linked to an E. coli outbreak involving McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has prompted several other major fast-food chains to remove raw onions from their menu offerings.

Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King have stopped adding fresh onions to their signature items at certain locations.

A spokesperson for Yum Brands, which owns several fast-food chains, said its restaurants were yanking onions from their menus “out of an abundance of caution”. The company would not elaborate or say how many sites in how many states would not offer onions.

Federal regulators have not confirmed the source of the outbreak, which has so far killed one person and made 49 sick.

Initial investigations have suggested that the onion slices served mainly atop McDonald’s Quarter Pounders were a “likely source of contamination”.

Taylor Farms, the sole supplier of onions to the affected McDonald’s locations in 10 states, issued a recall of several yellow onion products because of “potential E. coli contamination”, according to a notice from US Foods, a company that distributes the Taylor ingredients to many restaurants.

Burger King said that about 5 per cent of its sites nationwide are supplied with onions from the Taylor Farms Colorado facility and said it would stop offering them for now. A spokesperson for the fast-food chain said the company was not aware of any illnesses connected to its food.

Yum Brands declined to say whether Taylor Farms supplied its onions. In addition, although US Foods alerted its customers, a spokesperson said it did not directly supply McDonald’s with Taylor onions.

McDonald’s declined to publicly identify its distributors.

The US Foods 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 spokesperson for US Foods said in an e-mail. Taylor Farms did not respond to requests for comment.

Health officials and McDonald’s said they had not ruled out possible contamination of the quarter-pound beef patties used for the burger, a popular menu item.

The US Agriculture Department said a state agency has collected minced beef patties for testing. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating reports from people who became ill in a number of states.

The outbreak has made people sick across the Mountain West region, though most cases have been clustered in Colorado. NYTIMES

Source: The Straits Times