McDonald’s sued over E. coli linked to burger

What happened

McDonald’s was sued Thursday by a Colorado customer who became ill with E. coli after eating at the fast food chain, the first such lawsuit stemming from an outbreak that has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead. The E. coli was linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, and U.S. health officials said this week that slivered onions on the burger were the “likely source of contamination.”

Eric Stelly, the first plaintiff, experienced “gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, stomach cramps, nausea, and dehydration, as well as bloody stools” after eating at his local McDonald’s on Oct. 4, according to his lawyer. His claim was the “first of what is expected to be multiple lawsuits over the E. coli outbreak,” Fox Business said. Most of the reported illnesses have been in Colorado and Nebraska. A Nebraska woman, Clarissa DeBock, filed a second E. coli lawsuit against McDonald’s, represented by the same lawyer.

McDonald’s said Thursday that onions from Taylor Farms Colorado had been pulled from restaurants in the Mountain West, where sales of Quarter Pounders have also been halted. The Food and Drug Administration said Taylor Farms was the source of the potentially contaminated onions. Other fast food chains “were pulling fresh onions out of their menu items” on Thursday, including Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, Reuters said. Major food distributors Sysco and U.S. Food also notified customers of the onion recall.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Stelly is seeking more than $50,000 in damages. Health officials and McDonald’s have “not ruled out possible contamination of the quarter-pound beef patties used for the burger, a popular menu item,” The New York Times said. But experts said while beef often used to be the culprit in E. coli outbreaks, safety changes following several high-profile outbreaks have made beef less likely to be the source.

To continue reading this article…

Create a free account

Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.

Already have an account? Sign in

Subscribe to The Week

Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.

Cancel or pause at any time.

Already a subscriber to The Week?

Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.

Source link