Fast food giants have pulled fresh onions from their menus in the US after a McDonald’s E.coli outbreak that killed one person and left 49 others sick.
McDonald’s, as well as its rivals including Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, have all taken action, removing fresh onions from their menus in select US branches.
The ingredient is believed to be the likely source of the outbreak that led to McDonald’s removing the quarter pounder from one-fifth of its US restaurants.
The onions are said to have come from Taylor Farms, a California-based company.
Beef patties are now also under scrutiny from regulators who are investigating whether they could be affected too.
However, when beef is cooked properly E.coli is killed – whereas the quarter pounder is served with raw onions.
The popular burger has been pulled from restaurants across states including Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, and in parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
At least ten people have been hospitalised in the McDonald’s outbreak, including a child who suffered a severe kidney disease complication as a result.
Illnesses were confirmed between 27 September and 11 October, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
‘They’re off our menu’
Around 5% of Burger King locations in the US have also pulled the ingredient from the menu, a spokesperson for the company said.
Eric Stelly, from Greeley, Colorado, is suing McDonald’s after contracting an E.coli infection.
In a lawsuit, he said he ate at McDonald’s on 4 October, before falling ill two days later and seeking emergency care – afterwards, health officials confirmed his infection was part of the outbreak.
McDonald’s said on Thursday that Taylor Farms had supplied the onions.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed Taylor Farms was the supplier and added: “Yellow onions were sold to additional food service customers.”
An FDA spokesperson said: “Customers who received recalled onions have been directly notified of the recall.”
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Major food distributors including US Foods and Sysco Corp have also been notifying customers of the recall.
One on-duty manager inside a Burger King in Colorado said: “We’ve been told by corporate to not use any onions going forward for the foreseeable future. They’re off our menu.”
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Onions have been implicated in previous outbreaks and in 2015, Taylor Farms recalled a celery and onion mix used in Costo chicken salads after 19 people fell sick with E.coli.
Then last year, 80 people fell ill and one person died in a salmonella outbreak tied to a diced onions from Gills Onions of Oxnard, California.
