DENVER (KDVR) – McDonald’s has voluntarily stopped selling its Quarter Pounder hamburger at restaurants across Colorado and other states after an E. coli outbreak was linked to the menu item.
In total, the outbreak has sickened 49 people in 10 states. The majority of the reported illnesses have been in Colorado, where 26 people reported getting sick. One person, a resident of Mesa County in their 80s, has died, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was investigating whether the outbreak stemmed from the slivered onions on the Quarter Pounders or the beef patties used.
McDonald’s itself said it believes the source of the outbreak to be the slivered onions, which came from one supplier.
All other menu items are still available, however, and the Food and Drug Administration said that the onions and beef patties used in other menu items have not been implicated in the outbreak.
Why no other items were taken off the menu
McDonald’s is known for its hamburgers, all of which come standard with onions. Some might wonder, then, why the chain has not stopped selling any other menu items that contain onions, or the beef patties used in the Quarter Pounders.
The answer is simple: Not all burgers use the same ingredients.
The quarter-pound beef patties at McDonald’s are only used for the Quarter Pounders and not on any other hamburgers, according to the CDC. Additionally, the slivered onions suspected as the source are “primarily used” on Quarter Pounders, and not other menu items.
Instead, other menu items, including the other hamburgers on McDonald’s menu, use diced onions, which the Food and Drug Administration said are not implicated in the outbreak.
Most people interviewed by the CDC after they became ill with E. coli said they ate the Quarter Pounder at McDonald’s before becoming sick.
What about onions at other restaurants?
According to the CDC, after the source of the outbreak is determined, investigators will look into whether or not the same ingredient went to other restaurants or stores.
So far, no other stores or restaurants that use onions have been formally linked to the outbreak by officials, and no cases beyond the 49 initially reported by the CDC have been reported.