Onion Recall Linked to E. Coli and McDonald’s Spreads to Other Fast Food Chains
The New York Times
A deadly outbreak spurred removal of onions by a major food supplier in the Mountain West. Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut have stopped serving onions at various locations.
A sweeping onion recall linked to an E. coli outbreak involving McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has prompted several other major fast-food chains to remove raw onions from their menu offerings.
Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King have stopped adding fresh onions to their signature items at certain locations. A spokeswoman for Yum Brands, which owns several fast-food chains, said that its restaurants were yanking onions from their menus “out of an abundance of caution.” Yum Brands would not elaborate or say how many sites in how many states would not offer onions.
Federal regulators have not confirmed the source of the outbreak, which has so far killed one person and sickened 49. Initial investigations have suggested that the fresh, slivered onions served mainly atop the Quarter Pounder were a “likely source of contamination.”
Taylor Farms, the sole supplier of those onions to the affected McDonald’s locations in 10 states, issued a recall of several yellow onion products because of “potential E. coli contamination,” according to a notice from U.S. Foods, a company that distributes the Taylor ingredients to many restaurants.
Burger King said that about five percent of its sites nationwide are supplied with onions from the Taylor Farms Colorado facility, and said it would stop offering them in the region for now. A spokeswoman for the fast food chain said the company was not aware of any illnesses connected to its food.
Yum Brands declined to say whether Taylor Farms supplied its onions. In addition, although U.S. Foods alerted its customers, a spokeswoman said it did not directly supply McDonald’s with Taylor onions. McDonald’s declined to publicly identify its distributors.
