Sliced fresh onions served in McDonald’s Quarteron snack were the likely source of an Escheria coli (E. coli) outbreak that caused one death in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food Administration said. and Medicines (FDA) of the USA on Wednesday (30).
Additional cases associated with the outbreak have also been reported, bringing the total number of illnesses to 90 and hospitalizations to 27. However, the CDC notes that the current risk to the public is “very low” as the reported illnesses happened before the onions affected were removed from the fast-food chain’s locations.
“It is not necessary to avoid eating onions or other foods made with onions,” said the CDC.
Last week, supplier Taylor Farms issued a warning for four onion products due to “potential E. coli contamination.”
McDonald’s stores in affected areas have temporarily stopped using sliced onions, and other fast-food restaurants that received onions from this supplier — including Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC — have proactively removed the ingredients from menus in some locations.
It is not likely that the recalled onions went to supermarkets or directly to consumers, the CDC said on Wednesday (30). Diced onions used at McDonald’s have also not been linked to this outbreak, according to the FDA.
The beef burgers used at Quarterão were also part of the investigation, which began on October 22. But the Colorado Department of Agriculture said Sunday that the McDonald’s burgers used in the classic snack tested negative for E. coli.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said on Monday (29) that the evidence did not point to ground beef as the likely source of contamination.
McDonald’s announced on Sunday that it would resume selling the Quarterão chainwide this week, but the 900 restaurants that previously received sliced onions from Taylor Farms would not include onions in these sandwiches.
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This content was originally published in McDonald’s bacteria outbreak was likely caused by onions on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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