Slivered onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders are the “likely source” of an outbreak of E.coli infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday.
The number of cases has now risen to 90 across 13 states, with five additional hospitalizations, the agency said.
All new illnesses occurred before McDonald’s and the supplier of the onions took action to remove them from food service locations, the agency said. The most recent illness onset date is October 16.
McDonald’s confirmed that Taylor Farms, a California-based produce company, was the supplier of the onions used in the restaurants and that they had come from a facility in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Due to the product actions taken by both companies, the CDC said it believes the risk to the public “is very low.”
Federal food safety investigators ruled out beef patties as the likely source of contamination on Monday.
One person has died and a total of 27 have been hospitalized since the start of the outbreak, including two people who developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure.
McDonald’s pulled Quarter Pounders off the menu at around 3,000 stores. The company said it will resume selling the burgers at affected restaurants in the coming week.
