McDonald’s takes burgers that caused E Coli outbreak off menu at 20% US outlets

McDonald’s has stopped serving Quarter Pounder burgers at 20 per cent (that is one-fifth) of its outlets in the US after the burgers were linked to E Coli outbreak in 10 states.
The fast food chain removed the burgers from its menu in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and in some areas in Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, news agency Associated Press reported.
This comes after one person died and dozens fell ill due to E coli infections, which the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) linked to the Quarter Pounder burgers in 10 US states.
McDonald’s US chief Joe Erlinger said on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday that it took steps to quickly pull the Quarter Pounder from its menu in areas where the outbreak occurred.
“Given the recent events of the past 24 hours, our priority is to reinforce the confidence of American consumers,” he said.
He further said that it was likely that the unidentified contaminated product had alread passed through the company’s supply chain.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters that the department was expecting to see more E Coli infections.
“McDonald’s has moved rather quickly to take action to, hopefully, prevent as many cases as possible,” he added.
On being asked why McDonald’s didn’t close any restaurants, the company said that the government’s investigation didn’t indicate that there were flaws in its food preparation practices.
Preliminary investigations by the US Food and Drug Administration said that fresh slivered onions, which are served raw in the Quarter Pounder burgers, were likely a source of the contamination.
Notably, McDonald’s also serves raw, slivered onions in one of its breakfast sandwiches, but that sandwich isn’t available at the impacted stores. Other burgers, like the Big Mac, use diced, cooked onions, Associated Press reported. It said that it was searching for a new regional supplier for fresh onions.
The fast food outlet said that it worked closely with federal food safety regulators since late last week, when it was alerted about the potential E Coli outbreak.
It said that the scope of the problem and the popularity of its products have complicated efforts to identify the contamination source, The Associated Press reported.
Notably, McDonald’s over 14,000 outlets in the US and serves over one million Quarter Pounder burgers every two weeks in the affected states.