Key Takeaways:
• Taylor Farms, a California-based produce company, identified as the source of E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s onions
• Multiple fast-food chains including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Burger King pull onions from their menus
• Outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states, leading to at least one death.
• Taylor Farms issues recall for peeled whole and diced yellow onions due to potential E. coli contamination.
Suspect Produce Identified
Health officials have identified a California-based produce company as the source of fresh onions that triggered a deadly E. coli food poisoning outbreak at fast-food chain McDonald’s. This announcement led other national food chains to take immediate action, removing onions from various menu items across several locations.
McDonald’s officials have highlighted that Taylor Farms, based in Salinas, California, supplied the impacted onions to a distribution facility serving multiple restaurant locations. Taylor Farms’ onions have also been recalled by major wholesaler, U.S. Foods, for potential E. coli contamination. However, the company clarified that it does not supply to McDonald’s.
Multiple Illnesses: The E. Coli Outbreak
Surprisingly, this recent incident is not isolated. There has been an outbreak related to the consumption of contaminated onions, leading to at least 49 people falling sick in ten different states. One person has sadly passed away. Federal health officials are now concentrating their attention on the slivered onions as the potential infection source.
Despite the Food and Drug Administration not confirming the investigation into Taylor Farms, they assured that they are looking into all possible contamination sources. As a preventive measure, other restaurant chains have ceased using fresh onions. Fast food giants such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC have all made this decision out of caution.
Preventive Measures and Additional Concerns
In a precautionary strategy, Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, removed fresh onions from select restaurants. Furthering the complexity, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), which owns Burger King, disclosed that 5% of their restaurants use onions distributed by the Colorado facility of Taylor Farms. RBI has instructed the impacted restaurants to dispose of the onions and restock from different suppliers, despite no known incidents of illness occurring at their establishments.
Other companies such as Chipotle confirmed that they do not source onions from Taylor Farms or use any ingredient from their Colorado facility.
Previous Cases and Health Risks
This situation is not the first time onions have been implicated in food poisoning outbreaks. The manufacturer at the center of the current outbreak, Taylor Farms, faced a similar issue in 2015. They had to recall celery and onion mix used in Costco chicken salads after E. coli infected 19 consumers.
The E. Coli bacterium is quite dangerous, causing approximately 74,000 infections annually in the U.S., with over 2000 hospitalizations and 61 deaths recorded each year. A Colorado resident has already launched a lawsuit against McDonald’s after contracting an E. coli infection from a local outlet.
E. Coli infection symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and signs of dehydration. These symptoms might occur within a day or two of consuming infected food. Vulnerable groups include children under 5, the elderly, pregnant women, and individuals with weakened immune systems.
It is of paramount importance to keep monitoring the situation and take the necessary precautions to ensure public safety.