Onions Are Off The Menu At Some Fast Food Chains Due To The Ongoing E. Coli Outbreak

News reports shared an important alert this week following several cases of E. coli-based food poisoning that have been traced to McDonald's Quarter Pounders. As of this writing, federal officials say that the pathogen has sickened 49 people in 10 U.S. states and one person has died. E. coli contamination is obviously nothing to mess around with, and the fast food giant with tens of thousands of locations worldwide didn't waste any time notifying its customers.

E. coli is often the culprit when an outbreak of illness affects the public. Most of the time, it can be linked to tainted meat, but authorities are now taking a closer look at a different culprit in the McDonald's case: raw sliced onions. Raw onions are a standard topping for Quarter Pounders.

The sliced onions at the center of this breakout came from Taylor Farms, a California-based producer that works with numerous fast food chains. After the outbreak, the supplier ran tests to determine if the bacteria had affected its product and came up with no clear evidence. To avoid taking any chances, several fast food restaurant locations in the affected states (including Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell) have stopped adding raw onions from Taylor Farms to meals until more information can be gathered. Some McDonald's locations have also stopped selling Quarter Pounders for the time being.

E. coli is a bacteria found in many places, including feces, the environment, water sources, and occasionally in meat. If animal waste in the form of fertilizer is used on a crop, illness-causing bacteria in that fertilizer can contaminate onions as well as any other fruit or vegetable, making it all the more important to look out for warning signs when buying produce yourself. Because of this, meat must be cooked to a temperature that will kill the bacteria — undercooking beef can be a major mistake you make when cooking ground beef. However, there's no such process that would kill E. coli or other pathogens as effectively when it comes to raw vegetables such as onions.

Quarter Pounders, with or without cheese, are a popular menu item for McDonald's. As soon as McDonald's heard about the E. coli outbreak, the chain released a statement saying it had pulled the burgers from the menu in affected states. However, no apologies were issued to customers impacted by the tainted food.

McDonald's woes probably won't end with this E. coli crisis despite the company's U.S. president going on the Today show to assure customers that its food is safe and "that you can confidently go to McDonald's today." Two customers have already filed lawsuits against McDonald's after they contracted E. coli from restaurants in Colorado and Nebraska. We expect there will be more to come.