The McDonald’s E. coli outbreak is rapidly spreading, infecting more innocent civilians. As of last week, 90 people had fallen ill in 13 different states linked to the onions in the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder.
The deathly contamination of E. coli sprouted from the slivered onions which are distributed from the Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility. These onions have led to the hospitalization of 27 people including the death of one person in Colorado due to E. coli. The McDonald’s corporation has come out to apologize on behalf of this and are now facing multiple lawsuits.
“We are very confident that any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald’s restaurants,” The fast food company said in their statement on October 27, 2024.
As for some customers of McDonlads they agree and feel as if the outbreak has been contained and is safe to eat at.
“The outbreak hasn’t changed my opinion on fast food that much,” Lincoln East junior Andre Bowman said. “Many restaurants have foodborne illness outbreaks. I have gone back to McDonalds multiple times since the E- coli outbreak. The outbreak is only in the quarter pounders so I just order something else instead. I also have trust in McDonalds being a multi-billion dollar chain to fix their mistakes relatively quickly.”
On the other hand victims of food borne illness that have sprouted from various food options at McDonald’s feel differently, in this situation it has left them traumatized and unable to go back for the moment.
“I have not gone back to Mcdonalds so far and I don’t think I will for a bit of time,” Lincoln East senior Krithik Pondicherry said. “I ate the potentially cross contaminated food, (which was chicken nuggets), on October 13th. The symptoms I experienced started the next morning where I woke up and had to throw up numerous times throughout the night. On the 14th was when my symptoms were the worst, I had a fever and cold like symptoms and I felt extremely tired. My doctor said that a lot of the symptoms I experienced were very similar to E. coli but when I got my appointment the health department felt it was too late to test me.”
On October 22 the supplier for McDonalds issued a recall on all yellow onions in affected areas following an investigation on Taylor farms in Colorado in hopes to end the outbreak. As well the temporarily paused sales of Quarter Pounders in select locations has ended, however in certain restaurants they will be served without slivered onions for the short time being.
