(NewsNation) — Food supplier US Foods has recalled Taylor Farms onions for a potential E. coli outbreak.
The recall includes fresh, whole, peeled and diced yellow onions. Anyone who has potentially contaminated goods should record the number of cases and destroy the product, according to US Foods.
It’s unclear whether the recall may be tied to an E. coli outbreak among people who reported eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers.
Investigators are working to determine if the slivered onions or beef patties are the source of the outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, Quarter Pounders may not be available in some states.
Amanda Deering, an associate professor of food science at Purdue University, said onions, rather than beef patties, are a more likely culprit for E. coli.
The cooking process should kill any potential infection-causing bacteria on a patty, she said.
“However, those onions do not have a kill step, so we’ll see,” she said. “I’m not making any predictions, nor do I have data that supports that. But I sort of guess that’s where the problem is.”
Taylor Farms supplies to McDonald’s Corp. and although the supplier hasn’t found traces of E. coli, it issued the recall “out of an abundance of caution,” Bloomberg reported.
