Onions recalled amid McDonald’s E. coli outbreak

Taylor Farms has issued a recall on raw onions after preliminary data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration indicated the ingredient as “a likely source of contamination” in a deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
In a recall notice from McDonald’s distributor U.S. Foods obtained by ABC News, its supplier Taylor Farms announced a recall out of an abundance of caution on four raw onion products “due to potential E. coli contamination.”
“Our records show that affected product may have been sent to your location. It is urgent that you stop using affected product as soon as possible,” the notice read.
McDonald’s confirmed in a statement to ABC News that Taylor Farms is the supplier of the sliced onions the fast-food chain removed.
Four different products were included in the recall: 30-pound bags of peeled jumbo yellow onions, 4-5-pound bags of 3/8-inch diced fresh yellow onions, 5-pound bags of fresh diced yellow onions, and 6-5-pound bags of whole, peeled yellow onions.
“If you find any of the affected product, please record the number of cases and then destroy the product,” the U.S. Foods notice stated.
According to Bloomberg, Taylor Farms has not found any traces of E. coli yet and it’s unclear if the recall is linked to the outbreak investigation at McDonald’s, but Taylor Farms is an onion supplier for the fast food chain.
As of time of publication the, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 49 cases of E. coli with 10 hospitalizations and one death across 10 states linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
Health officials have said they expect the number of sick people to grow.
“This is a fast-moving outbreak investigation. Most sick people are reporting eating Quarter Pounder hamburgers from McDonald’s and investigators are working quickly to confirm which food ingredient is contaminated,” the agency stated in a food safety alert. “McDonald’s has pulled ingredients for these burgers, and they won’t be available for sale in some states.”
As a result, McDonald’s removed the Quarter Pounder from menus in the states affected by the outbreak, which accounts for 20% of the U.S. locations.
McDonald’s announced Wednesday that it had proactively removed two ingredients from stores across two impacted regions, but the company’s leadership team assured that a majority of other menu items are not impacted, according to the CDC investigation.
“Other beef products at McDonald’s, including the Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Big Mac, McDouble and the Double Cheeseburger, are not impacted,” McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger said Wednesday.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s said either fresh onions, which came from one supplier, or beef patties used for the Quarter Pounder could be behind the outbreak.
If onions are found to be the source of the E. coli outbreak, it would be the first time onions have ever been a carrier for this particular strain of the bacteria, company spokespeople said on Wednesday.
The spokespeople also reiterated that onions used in the Quarter Pounders, as identified by CDC tracing data, came from suppliers that also test for E. coli.
Burger King released a statement Thursday saying, “There is no crossover with McDonald’s for the vast majority of our onion facilities,” but added, “About 5% of our restaurants do receive onions distributed from the Taylor Farms Colorado facility.”
“Despite no contact from health authorities and no indications of illness, we proactively asked our 5% of restaurants who received whole onions distributed by this facility to dispose of them immediately two days ago and we are in the process of restocking them from other facilities,” Burger King said.
ABC News’ Taylor Dunn contributed to this report.