Shares of McDonald's rose intraday Monday as the fast-food giant announced the planned return of its Quarter Pounder hamburgers in all restaurants this week after ruling out beef patties as the potential source of a recent E. coli outbreak. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration said the number of E.
coli cases potentially linked to Quarter Pounder had reached 75 across 13 US states as of Thursday. The outbreak has resulted in one death, US health authorities said at the time. McDonald's temporarily removed the Quarter Pounder from restaurants in the impacted areas. On Sunday, the company confirmed that testing results from the Colorado Department of Agriculture showed no detection of E.
coli in samples taken of Quarter Pounder beef patties. No further testing is planned for beef patties, which have been ruled out as the source of the outbreak, said McDonald's North America Chief Supply Chain Officer Cesar Pina in an internal message published on the company's website. "We are now confident in asking our beef suppliers to produce a new supply of fresh beef patties for the impacted areas," Pina stated.
"We will resume distribution of that fresh supply, and the Quarter Pounder is expected to be available in all restaurants in the coming week." McDonald's shares increased by 1.5% in Monday afternoon trade. The stock had a 3% decline on Friday, making it the worst performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In response to the outbreak, the company decided to halt sourcing onions from Taylor Farms' facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, indefinitely. "Over the past few days, you've likely seen that additional food service providers and restaurant brands that received onions from this facility have moved to stop selling and/or recall onions," Pina remarked.
The FDA is continuing its investigation into the facility, Pina added. The 900 McDonald's locations that historically received slivered onions from Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility will resume Quarter Pounder sales without the onions. Those restaurants are located in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, as well as parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.
On Friday, Taylor Farms disclosed that it preemptively recalled yellow onions from its Colorado facility that were sent to certain foodservice customers. Taylor Farms has not responded to requests for comment on the latest development, while the CDC and the FDA have redirected inquiries to their statements from Friday.
McDonald's is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results Tuesday..