McDonald's Allocates $100 Million to Recover from E. coli Incident

Following the E. coli incident involving onions in their Quarter Pounder burgers, McDonald's is set to invest $100 million to restore customer confidence and bring them back to its restaurants.

Of this investment, $65 million will be allocated specifically to support franchises that were most negatively impacted, according to the company's announcement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounders as the probable cause of the E. coli contamination. This led to a recall of potentially affected onions by Taylor Farms in California.

The outbreak affected 104 individuals across 14 states, as reported by federal health authorities.

Among those affected, 34 were hospitalized, and four developed a severe kidney condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Tragically, an 88-year-old from Colorado succumbed to the illness. Cases began emerging in late September and were last recorded on October 21, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA has since stated that there is currently no ongoing risk to food safety at McDonald's locations concerning this outbreak.

Despite this, the incident did negatively impact the company’s revenues.

In the early stages of the outbreak, the Quarter Pounders were temporarily removed from menus in multiple states.

McDonald’s issued a statement, shared with CBS News, revealing they had secured a new supplier for the nearly 900 restaurants that had stopped using the slivered onions in their Quarter Pounders.

The company stated, "In the past week, these locations have resumed offering Quarter Pounders with slivered onions."