United States: In the latest reports, several people fell ill after eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounders; at least 75 across 13 states now have been infected with E.coli, federal officials reported on Friday.
More about the news
Twenty-two individuals have been confirmed to be in the hospital while two more of them suffered disease complications that affect the kidney, according to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, one person from Colorado died.
Not a single point source of the outbreak has been found, according to officials with the US FDA, ABC News reported.
What has the FDA found?
It was also clear from the first reports by the FDA that uncooked slivered onions served on the burgers “are a likely source of contamination,” as the agency put it.
Taylor Farms, a salad maker in California that cuts fresh onions for McDonalds, this week pulled out yellow onions on possibilities of E.coli contamination from the US food safety authorities.
McDonald also stated that onions from Taylor Farms, which triggered the recall, were delivered to a single distribution center and used in the restaurants implicated in the outbreak.
The distribution point was not revealed by McDonald’s, and the burger was removed from the menus of several states – mostly those in the Midwest and Mountain regions – when the outbreak was declared on Tuesday.
Another company that operates Burger King outlets said it receives whole onions from Taylor Farms’ center in Colorado.
It stopped using them, but not a single case of any illness had been recorded with the company.
New McDonald’s cases
The new cases of McDonald’s recorded on Friday were a big jump from the initial 49 cases that were reported in 10 states.
Three-fourths of the illnesses were reported in Colorado; there were 26 cases, ABC News reported.
At least 13 people were infected in Montana, 11 in Nebraska, 5 in New Mexico and Utah, 4 in Missouri and Wyoming, two people in Michigan, and one in each of Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington, as per the CDC.
There were those who were known to have contracted the sickness and had traveled to other states for the sickness to manifest.
The reported span of illness went from September 27 to October 11.
However, McDonald’s mentioned that it had not taken away the Quarter Pounder from additional restaurants, and adding travel appeared to be a major reason in some cases.