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An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders has caused 75 illnesses in 13 states, including 22 hospitalizations and one death, according to new data released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Two of the hospitalized patients had hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can result from E. coli infection. The elderly man who died had the following conditions but did not develop this syndrome.
The CDC opened its investigation on Tuesday, initially reporting 49 cases in 10 states — 10 hospitalizations and one death. It could take weeks to determine if the disease is part of an outbreak, and those numbers are expected to grow.
Most of the illnesses linked to the outbreak have been in Colorado, the CDC said. Michigan, New Mexico and Washington have been added to the list of states with reported cases, along with Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. However, the agency said the outbreak could go beyond these states.
Federal officials say they are still working to determine the specific source of the bacteria, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the onion or ground beef on the quarter-pounder sandwich may have been the cause of the contamination.
All of those interviewed had eaten at McDonald's, and most had eaten beef hamburgers, the FDA said.
“FDA is using all available tools to confirm that onions are the source of this outbreak,” an agency spokesman said in a statement. “This includes working with federal and state partners and participating companies to collect records and distribution data as part of our ongoing investigation. FDA and state partners are also collecting onion samples for analysis.
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McDonald's has pulled Quarter Pounders from its menu at a fifth of its stores. The company has stopped using red onions as well as quarter-pound beef patties in several states — Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, as well as parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The investigation is ongoing, the CDC said.
McDonald's supplier Taylor Farms has removed yellow onions from the market “out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. And distributor US Foods has recalled four onion products due to “E. coli contamination.”
The FDA confirmed that yellow onions from Taylor Farms were sold to additional food service customers. Some other major fast-food chains that received onions from Taylor Farms — including Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC — have removed fresh onions from their menus at some locations.