Are we still “Lovin it”?

While some may view this as “old news,” the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak, which continues to grow, was initially reported in a food safety alert on Oct. 22, 2024. In the span of a month, more than 24 people have been hospitalized and one person has lost their life. In the U.S., the majority of E Coli outbreaks come from contamination in food, such as raw meat, bad milk or cheeses and contaminated fruits or vegetables. McDonalds, a very popular fast food restaurant for many years, has been responsible for spreading this E Coli outbreak supposedly from their Quarter Pounders.
The rapid public health investigation has discovered that the outbreak linked back to onions that are served on many kinds of McDonald’s burgers. The onions stemmed from a popular vegetable seller, Taylor Farms. Following the impact of the contaminated onions, Taylor Farms intervened amid the surge in E. coli cases, leading about one-fifth of U.S. McDonald’s locations to remove Quarter Pounders from their menus.
McDonalds is working towards improving their health safety worldwide. Junior, and McDonalds employee Kate Cole stated that Mcdonalds said that they have done “nothing different” since the E coli outbreak, “We’ve only changed things in certain areas” said Cole. Many McDonalds around the world have been not taking this issue seriously. In the past, other chain restaurants have had the same problem that McDonalds is currently dealing with, starting with the infamous Jack In the Box E. coli outbreak in 1992. This specific widespread disease marked the first food contamination in America’s fast food history that affected around 730 individuals. Along with the Jack In the Box disease outbreak, other famous chain restaurants such as Chipotle have had similar occurrences. July 2015 started the widespread of E. Coli from people that were consuming Chipotle, this sickened at least 60 individuals but luckily no deaths were reported.
Zoiee Mason, 26’ at Green High School and current Mcdonalds employee, said,
“Some people have asked questions about it but we have not gotten that many complaints because this issue has been occurring more in the west, not in Ohio. When people ask about it we just tell them not to worry, ‘It is not in our food.”
Mason also mentioned that not that many protocols have been put in place at this location since the outbreak is more often seen in western states.
Although McDonalds is going through these struggles and possibly losing customers, they look forward to improving their overall safety with all of their menu items. In a press release on October 27, 2024, McDonald’s commented that their food safety is “Everyone’s responsibility, and this week we’ve been reminded why”.
As the FDA continues to investigate the outbreak, McDonald’s一on a national scale一has since stopped sourcing onions from the Taylor Farm’s facility indefinitely. Due to the amount of food that McDonald’s serves each year, there is bound to be another outbreak from contamination that is outside of their control. They have to continue to have the proper safety checks in place to make sure these outbreaks remain at a minimum. After all, McDonald’s would like people to keep “lovin it” and continue to serve satisfied customers every year.