We received an update from McDonald's today on the E. Coli outbreak that impacted onions at their restaurants.
"Yesterday, both public health authorities confirmed that their respective investigations into E. Coli at McDonald’s have been closed. And importantly, since McDonald’s removed the impacted product from approximately 900 impacted restaurants on Oct. 22, there have been no new illnesses reported," an email from a company spokesperson says.
Louisiana restaurants weren't impacted by the onion issue.
McDonald's North America Chief Impact Officer Michael Gonda and Chief Supply Chain Officer Cesar Piña released the following internal message on Tuesday, December 3:
"Earlier today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that their respective investigations into E. Coli at McDonald’s have been closed. CDC also confirmed there were no new illnesses associated with consumers eating at McDonald’s following our swift and decisive action on October 22, 2024. This reinforces the importance of our values, particularly in moving quickly to do the right thing and to always put people first.
"To our franchisees and restaurant teams: thank you for your focus and commitment to living our values as we made sure to take every step to respond to this issue.
"The process to reach this point has at times felt long, challenging and uncertain. But it is critical that public officials examine every possible angle, and we are deeply grateful that they moved quickly to identify and, in partnership with McDonald’s, contain the issue. We’d like to thank them once again.
"Federal and state officials have repeatedly said that our immediate actions in October made any risk to the public “very low,” and the risk has remained very low since then.
"Today’s announcements from CDC and FDA provide certainty and validation from leading health authorities, which will be meaningful for our customers and communities. While the issue had been fully contained — and any contaminated product associated with this issue had been removed from our supply chain as of October 22, 2024 – it can now be classified as “closed” and remediated.
"This also closes out all known public health reviews of the issue.
"Here is a reminder of key outcomes to date:
- FDA confirms no food safety concern at McDonald’s restaurants related to recent outbreak (November 14)
- CDC maintains that risk to public health has remained “very low” for three weeks (re-communicated November 13)
- Colorado Department of Agriculture completed testing on all samples of beef, which were found to be negative for E. coli (October 27)
- McDonald’s identified an alternate slivered onion supplier for approximately 900 restaurants and resumed normal operations and sales of Quarter Pounder burgers (October 27)
- McDonald’s took swift and decisive action to remove slivered onions from impacted restaurants, pause distribution of slivered onions in the impacted area and, out of an abundance of caution, we also temporarily stopped selling Quarter Pounder burgers in the impacted area (October 22)
"Looking ahead, we must remain laser focused on regaining our customers’ hard-earned trust and reigniting their brand affinity.
"Thank you for all you’ve done and all you will continue to do. "
