15 new E. coli cases linked to McDonald’s outbreak

COLORADO, USA — A total of 90 people in 13 states have been sickened due to an E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, the Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday.

The newly reported illnesses are from before McDonald’s and Taylor Farms took action to remove the slivered onions from restaurants, the CDC said. The CDC said those onions “are the likely source of this outbreak.” 

The CDC said 15 new cases have been linked to the outbreak, bringing the total number to 90. Five new hospitalizations have been reported, bringing the total to 27. One person, a Mesa County, Colorado, resident, has died.

The CDC said a total of 29 cases, including eight hospitalizations, have been reported in Colorado. The CDC’s investigation into the outbreak began on Oct. 22. The most recent illness onset date is Oct. 16, the CDC said Wednesday. 

McDonald’s previously 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.

McDonald’s announced Sunday that Quarter Pounders would return to the menu at all restaurants this week, after beef patties were ruled out as the source of the outbreak. 

The company said the 900 restaurants that previously received slivered onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility would be selling the burgers without slivered onions. Those restaurants are in Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.