A Colorado farm has recalled onions it sold to McDonald’s before the fast-food chain’s E. coli outbreak, which killed one person in the state and sickened at least 49 people nationwide.
Taylor Farms, which is based in California but also grows vegetables in Colorado, issued a recall notice Wednesday for whole and diced yellow onions because of possible E. coli contamination.
Federal officials are investigating slivered onions and quarter-pound beef patties as possible sources of the outbreak.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 26 of the 49 people who have gotten sick nationwide after eating at McDonald’s live in Colorado. Ten people have needed hospital care.
Most people who completed interviews about the foods they ate said they’d had a Quarter Pounder hamburger in the days before they got sick.
The one fatality was an unidentified person in Mesa County who had pre-existing health conditions.
Most people infected with E. coli recover without specific treatment, but children under 5, adults over 65 and people with compromised immune systems are at a higher risk of complications. The bacteria produce a toxin that causes abdominal pain, vomiting, bloody diarrhea and, rarely, bloodstream infections or kidney damage.
Colorado chain Illegal Pete’s told the Colorado Sun that it was among the restaurants that had purchased the recalled onions and was throwing them out. Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC also had to dispose of their onions in locations that received a potentially contaminated shipment, according to NBC News.
Bill Marler, an attorney who specializes in foodborne illness cases and is representing clients in Nebraska who got sick after eating at McDonald’s, said Taylor Farms had to recall bags of diced celery and onions in 2015 following cases of E. coli in people who ate chicken salad from Costco.
In almost all foodborne illness outbreaks, the farms and restaurants didn’t intentionally sell contaminated products, but something in the food safety process broke down, Marler said. Often, it involves water contaminated by cow feces, such as an irrigation ditch that caught waste from a nearby feedlot, he said.
The strain of E. coli involved in the current outbreak is harmless to cattle but can cause severe symptoms in humans.
“Usually in these cases, there’s a cow somewhere,” Marler said.
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