McDonald's Quarter Pounders are deadly e. coli outbreaks

An E associated with McDonald's quarter pounder hamburgers. One person has died and 49 have become ill after a coli outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

Most cases have been reported in Colorado and Nebraska. Preliminary investigations suggest that sleeved onions served in quarter pounders are a “potential source of contamination,” according to the CDC, which cites the Food and Drug Administration.

Onions are “primarily used on quarter pounder hamburgers and not other menu items.”

McDonald's said it would stop using the onion and stop selling the quarter pounder at restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Federal regulators are still investigating whether McDonald's hamburger patties may have also caused the illness.

In a statement posted on its website, McDonald's stressed that other items on its menu, including cheeseburgers and hamburgers, are not affected. “Serving customers safely in every single restaurant is our top priority and something we will never compromise on,” the statement said.

Bill Marler, a personal-injury lawyer who focuses on food safety, says onions are notoriously difficult to grow cleanly and have been linked to other food-borne illnesses like salmonella.

If onions were indeed responsible, he said, health officials would want to know whether the supplier supplied them exclusively to McDonald's or whether they were shipped elsewhere.

“If these onions go elsewhere, you can start to see this thing expand very quickly,” Mr. Marler said.

The CDC called the situation a “rapidly ongoing outbreak investigation.” Most of the people became ill with the bacterial infection between late September and mid-October, and all interviewed by health officials said they had recently eaten at McDonald's.

Health investigators are trying to determine if any contaminated ingredients were sold by other retailers or grocery stores.

The outbreak has hospitalized 10 people in the Mountain States, including a child with a critical illness, according to CDC One Colorado resident.

E. coli infection usually begins four days after consuming the contaminated food and includes diarrhea and severe abdominal pain. If these symptoms last more than two days or if the patient has a fever over 102 degrees or is dehydrated, medical help is needed.

In severe cases, E. coli can trigger kidney problems, which can be life-threatening.

McDonald's has been unusually in the news this week. On Sunday, former President Donald Trump staged an event at a closed McDonald's outside Philadelphia, working a fryer and serving fast food to a select audience through a drive-thru window.

The hope was to cast doubt on Vice President Kamala Harris' claim that her summer college job was at McDonald's. That recollection was confirmed by a family friend.