Four major fast food joints pull ingredient and are urged to ‘destroy it’ after McDonald’s E coli outbreak

Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell have followed McDonald’s lead and stopped using fresh onions in their foods, citing them as the most likely source of a deadly E. coli outbreak in western states.

Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC restaurants, said in a statement that it has pulled onions from its menu ‘proactively’, noting that there has been no indication so far that anyone has become sick after eating from any of those restaurants. 

It comes on the heals of a Colorado man’s death that investigators have tied to the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, which includes onions. 

So far, 10 are hospitalized and 49 have fallen sick after eating McDonald’s hamburgers in multiple Mountain West states. 

California-based Taylor Farms recalled several yellow onion batches after the FDA highlighted the vegetable as the ‘likely source of contamination.’

McDonald’s said it would stop using the onions and has halted sales of Quarter Pounders at restaurants across Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma.

A spokesperson for Yum Brands said: ‘As we continue to monitor the recently reported E. coli outbreak, and out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively removed fresh onions from select Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants.

We will continue following supplier and regulatory guidance to ensure the ongoing safety and quality of our food. 

At Taco Bell, onions are added to the beef mix in some items like the Crunchwrap Supreme and the beef burrito. Onions are also often used as toppings on the soft tacos and the Mexican Pizza. 

At KFC, onions are typically added on request while at Pizza Hut, while many of the pizzas include onions, customers can ask for them to be excluded. 

At Burger King, the Whopper (and the double and the junior versions) includes raw onions, as do the other cheeseburgers on the menu.

A spokesperson from Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, said: ‘Despite no contact from health authorities and no indications of illness, we proactively asked our 5 percent of restaurants who received whole onions distributed by this facility to dispose of them immediately two days ago and we are in the process of restocking them from other facilities.’ 

Taylor Farms, for its part, said none of the products had tested positive for the bacteria that kills up to a fifth of people who become sick, and that the recall was a precaution.