Quarter Pounder Pause: Why Only One Burger is Axed

Recently, McDonald's abruptly stopped selling its Quarter Pounder hamburger in Colorado and a few other states following an outbreak of E. coli. This isn't good news: 49 people across 10 states have fallen ill, with 26 cases in Colorado alone. Tragically, one person passed away due to this in Mesa County. The focus is on whether the problem comes from the onions or the beef patties on the Quarter Pounder. McDonald's thinks the slivered onions are to blame, which come from a single supplier. URLEncoded onions, anyone? The CDC is digging into whether the onions or beef triggered this. Yet, other menu items are still welcoming customers. Why? Different ingredients – the Quarter Pounder’s quarter-pound beef and slivered onions aren't used elsewhere in McDonald's burgers. Other items use diced onions. Interestingly, most people who got sick felt unwell after eating a Quarter Pounder. But what about other restaurants? No formal link has been found yet. Even so, some places like Illegal Pete’s in Colorado removed some onion menu items after a recall by Taylor Farms, just to be safe.