McDonald's To Resume Quarter Pounder Hamburger Sales After E. Coli Testing Clearance

(RTTNews) - McDonald's said Sunday that it will resume selling Quarter Pounder hamburgers in all restaurants in coming week after the Colorado Department of Agriculture's testing showed no detection of E. coli in the beef patties sampled from restaurants in the area.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC had issued a food safety alert against McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers after one died and 75 people from 13 states got sick from the same strain of E. coli O157:H7.

The CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, USDA FSIS, and public health officials in multiple states were investigating the outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections to identify the ingredient causing illness.

McDonald's had pulled the suspect ingredients, the slivered onions and beef patties, used for the Quarter Pounder hamburgers temporarily from stores in the affected states. Fresh slivered onions were primarily used on Quarter Pounder hamburgers and not other menu items.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) said Sunday that its Microbiology Laboratory analyzed dozens of subsamples from multiple lots of McDonald's brand fresh and frozen beef patties collected from various Colorado locations associated with the ongoing E. coli investigation and found them to be negative for E. coli.

The federal investigation has focused on ground beef patties and onions. At this time, CDA also has no information suggesting onions grown in Colorado are linked to this outbreak.

McDonald's said that the 900 restaurants that historically received slivered onions from Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility will resume sales of Quarter Pounders without slivered onions. Those restaurants are in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.

The company noted that the FDA is continuing its investigation into Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility.

Escherichia coli or E. coli are bacteria found in many places like the intestines of people and animals. Most kinds of E. coli are harmless and are part of a healthy intestinal tract, but certain strains can make people sick.

Most people infected with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli experience severe stomach cramps, diarrhea - often bloody, and vomiting.

Symptoms usually start 3 to 4 days after swallowing the bacteria, and most people recover without treatment after 5 to 7 days.

Meanwhile, some people may develop serious kidney problems, known as hemolytic uremic syndrome or HUS, and would need to be hospitalized.