McDonald's Quarter Pounder Is Back on the Menu

McDonald's announced Sunday that Quarter Pounders will again be on its menu at hundreds of its restaurants after testing ruled out beef patties as the source of the outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to the popular burgers that killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states, the AP reports. The US Food and Drug Administration continues to believe that uncooked slivered onions from a single supplier are the likely source of contamination, McDonald's said in a statement. It said it will resume selling the Quarter Pounder at affected restaurants—without slivered onions—in the coming week. As of Friday, a total of 22 people had been hospitalized, and two developed a dangerous kidney disease complication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The person who died lived in Colorado.

McDonald's has confirmed that Taylor Farms, a California-based produce company, was the supplier of the fresh onions used in the restaurants involved in the outbreak, and that they had come from a facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. McDonald's said it removed slivered onions sourced from that facility from its supply chain on Tuesday, and that it has decided to stop sourcing onions from Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility "indefinitely." McDonald's pulled the Quarter Pounder burger from menus in several states—mostly in the Midwest and Mountain states—when the outbreak was announced Tuesday. McDonald's said Friday that slivered onions from the Colorado Springs facility were distributed to approximately 900 of its restaurants, including some in transportation hubs like airports.

Colorado had the most illnesses reported as of Friday, with 26 cases. At least 13 people were sickened in Montana, 11 in Nebraska, 5 each in New Mexico and Utah, 4 each in Missouri and Wyoming, two in Michigan, and one each in Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington, the CDC reported. McDonald's said Friday it didn't pull the Quarter Pounder from any additional restaurants and noted that some cases in states outside the original region were tied to travel.

(More McDonald's stories.)