McDonalds boss vows to improve safety as E. coli cases expected to rise

McDonald’s scrambled on Wednesday to contain the damage from an E.coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounder burgers that has killed one person and sickened nearly 50 others, as it pulled the menu item from restaurants across a dozen states.The outbreak has sickened people across the US West and Midwest, with 10 hospitalized due to serious complications, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is investigating the outbreak.A McDonald’s spokesperson said the outbreak is limited to the United States.“We fully expect to see more cases,” said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

“McDonald’s has moved rather quickly to take action to, hopefully, prevent as many cases as possible.”Previous E.coli outbreaks at big US fast-food chains have caused consumers to shun those chains for months.McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger on Wednesday said the fast-food chain needs to rebuild trust with the public after it pulled the item off its menu at a fifth of its 14,000 US restaurants.The company pulled the Quarter Pounder from its menu at McDonald’s locations in Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, and in parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma.The CDC and McDonald’s are scrutinizing the Chicago-based company’s supplies of slivered onions and beef patties as they try to determine the cause of the outbreak, the company said.The US Department of Agriculture said late on Wednesday that the onions used were the likely source of the illness, though one of its state partners is testing samples of the beef for E.

coli.The company’s stock closed down 5.1% at $298.57 on Wednesday.Shares hit an intraday low of $290.88.The E.

coli O157:H7 strain that led to the McDonald’s outbreak is the same as a strain linked to a 1993 incident at Jack in the Box that killed four children.It can cause “very serious disease,” especially for the elderly, children and people who are immunocompromised, said Shari...