McDonald’s said on Sunday that it will resume sales of Quarter Pounders in 12 states this week after Colorado regulators said that beef from the affected restaurants tested negative for E. coli.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture said on Sunday that fresh and frozen beef from McDonald’s in the state tested negative for E. coli. Investigators had been looking at either beef or fresh slivered onions included in the burger.
In confirming that the illness was not traced to beef, McDonald’s said that it feels confident in resuming sales of Quarter Pounders in the states where the burgers had been pulled last week.
The resumption of quarter-pound burger sales will start in restaurants as supply of the beef becomes available. The 900 restaurants that received slivered onions from a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs will hold the onions when they start serving the burgers.
Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said in a video message Sunday that, “This issue was quickly identified and contained” and company officials said all onions from that Taylor Farms facility have been removed from the system.
Erlinger also apologized to customers for the outbreak. “I know that our relationship is built on trust,” he said in the message, addressing customers. “You trust us to serve you safe food every time. On behalf of the McDonald’s system, I want you to hear from me: We are sorry.”
“For those customers affected,” he added, “You have my commitment that, led by our values, we will make this right.”
The E. coli outbreak was first revealed on Oct. 22, sickening at least 75 people in 13 states, including one death. McDonald’s suspects that case numbers will grow as people sickened will come forward amid publicity about the outbreak.
The company quickly pulled Quarter Pounders from its menu in 12 states out of an “abundance of caution.”
Much of the publicity has centered on the Taylor Farms facility, from which several restaurant chains source onions. Burger King, Taco Bell and other chains have since pulled onions from their menus, and McDonald’s has said multiple times that the outbreak could affect more than just its restaurants, though public health authorities have yet to connect any illness with another chain.
Taylor Farms recalled onions shortly after news of the outbreak came out. McDonald’s said that it will stop sourcing onions from that facility “indefinitely.”
The 900 restaurants that received onions from Taylor Farms are in Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and portions of several other states. Many of the restaurants are in transportation hubs, leading McDonald’s to believe that people in other states visited a McDonald’s while traveling.
That said, federal investigators are still awaiting test results from the onions.
That’s nevertheless a key element for the company, which would face major questions if the outbreak had been traced to beef, considering its use of fresh beef for those Quarter Pounders. The test results on Sunday mean the company can pull the onions and serve the burger again. That’s a major source of sales for McDonald’s.
Yet McDonald’s will still need to focus on ensuring customers that its food is safe. “I hope our actions and today’s steps demonstrate McDonald’s continued commitment to food safety and the strong partnership that we cherish having with each of you,” Erlinger said.
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