Food Safety Dumpster Dive - October 2024 E.coli Outbreak Compliments of McDonald's Quarter Pounder
What better way to kick off this publication than to talk about the recent train-wreck tragedy of McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and slivered onions coated with E.coli O157:H7 (toxin producing). As I write this, there are ninety (90) people sick, twenty-seven (27) in the hospital; two have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and one is dead[1] spanning across thirteen (13) states. Who knows how many more are affected and do not have access to adequate healthcare or the type of care that will report to the health department. My point is, we can assume many more were affected and do not realize this is the root cause of their illness. I asked ChatGPT how many reports are typically made during an outbreak, and this was its answer:
There isn’t a specific percentage for how many individuals report to the FDA during a foodborne illness outbreak, but underreporting is a known issue. Many cases go unreported because affected individuals might assume their symptoms are mild or unrelated to food, making accurate statistics challenging to capture. The CDC estimates that of the roughly 48 million Americans affected annually by foodborne illnesses, only a fraction is formally reported due to various factors, including mild symptoms or barriers in accessing healthcare. This underreporting hinders real-time response efforts and robust data collection needed for tracking the outbreak's scope. Furthermore, norovirus, a common foodborne pathogen, is not always tested in routine cases, meaning even fewer confirmed instances reach reporting systems.
So what happened, Ronnie McD? McDonald’s, a billion-dollar company, certainly has the budget to invest in effective food safety! Where did it go wrong, Ronnie? I see a lot of talk in the food safety media arena, particularly on LinkedIn (barf), about how we should go easy on McDonald’s, and we shouldn’t be so hard on them because I mean, accidents happen, am I right? I’m sure this was a one-off and has nothing to do with the business ethics that make up that boardroom of people that actually make the decisions. Please excuse me while I pick up my eyeballs off the floor, they seemed to have rolled out.
What could they have done to prevent this awful tragedy? That is the question everyone should be demanding an answer to: What could you have done to prevent this, McDonald’s? In true PR fashion, it’s time to point the finger. In comes Taylor Farms. Marketing initiated the following narrative ‘it’s time to flood the media with how awful Taylor Farms is.’ It is the onions that made everyone sick, and Taylor Farms gave McDonald’s the onions, so it is their fault, right? But who told Taylor Farms to sell the onions to McDonald’s? Who approved Taylor Farms as an ingredient supplier of a produce item? Since these are higher risk, I would assume a thorough risk-based on-site visit was conducted?
Who went on-site to determine they have adequate and appropriate food safety controls? Did Taylor Farms demonstrate they had effective controls for the onions that were supplied to McDonald’s? Did anyone check sanitation records, SOPs, anti-microbial levels and validation studies? Was there appropriate ingredient supplier verification? I can answer that last question it’s a big fat F*** NO! There was NOT appropriate supplier verification conducted. I would bet my life that there was “an activity” that was conducted without a doubt. We will see that there was a third-party audit involved, most likely Taylor Farms received an exemplary score from a GFSI benchmarked scheme. Given the amount of volume Taylor Farms supplies to McDonald’s, did an actual representative of the company audit Taylor Farms and decide that Taylor Farms was an acceptable supplier? Or did they farm that out to the most cooperative and cost-effective certifying body? Did the activities they conducted indicate to the person making the final decision to approve that based on their evaluation they could assure food safety with Taylor Farms as an ingredient supplier of onions? I laugh, because no. Of course, Taylor Farms was not appropriately vetted as an ingredient supplier (a high-risk one to boot) and McDonald’s made the business decision to approve them and knowingly took on the risk. McDonald’s is at fault. No one coerced them. There is zero room for pity or professional grace here.
Now it’s time to pivot. We have to make sure everyone forgets about this as soon as possible, am I right? We are now seeing a lot of buzz about their marketing and what they’re going to do to bounce back. I see plenty of articles that seem to be hailing them rather than putting them in their place. Personally, I really don’t give a F what they’re going do to “bounce back”. People are dead, and real human beings’ lives are going to be affected for the rest of their earthly lives. These are real people that went to a restaurant and ate a hamburger while McDonald’s profited and now their lives are forever changed. Some may have to have a kidney transplant later down the road or require to be on dialysis with the HUS. Likely, the lawsuit settlement they receive will barely cover their medical bills much less their pain and suffering all for eating a Quarter Pounder at McDonald’s. Does that seem right? Does that seem like a scenario where we should cut McDonald’s some slack? You mean to tell me that a 227-billion-dollar company cannot afford effective food safety? Give me a F break. You’re not fooling me.
McDonald’s is a billion-dollar company that is knowingly and happily selling dubious food to their customers, and everyone is completely content with this. Consumers are OK with it because they’re ignorant and they’re genuinely unaware of how the food supply system works and how these companies are directly responsible. McDonald’s made a choice to accept Taylor Farms as their ingredient supplier for a high-risk item, onions. My big glaring question to McDonald’s is – WHY was Taylor Farms approved as an ingredient supplier of a high-risk item like onions? What risk-based evaluations were conducted that yielded a result of acceptable risk to approve them?
I want to direct everyone to the frequent recalls out of Taylor Farms. If they have effective food safety controls, why do they have so many recalls? Go to the enforcement report search tool for the FDA and see for yourself. In the search simply type “Taylor Farms,” and you will get 132 records[2]. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO RECORDS OF RECALLS for the FDA alone. Link to the database in the footnote. There are also USDA related recalls that can be found at the link in the footnote[3]. So, I must ask McDonald’s WTF were you thinking? Taylor Farms is a ticking time-bomb and there’s plenty of public evidence to support this.
Who is to blame here? Taylor Farms or McDonald’s? Taylor Farms is certainly not innocent in this scenario, but I’m not taking any blame off the table for McDonald’s. They’re a billion-dollar company. They have the financial and physical resources to invest in appropriate food safety. They can afford a real food safety expert, and then one step further they could choose to listen to them. Unfortunately, historical data shows us that most food business owners do not listen. They made a “business decision” and they choose profit and sales over food safety assurance.
The media positioning by McDonald’s and certain food safety professionals comes across as sycophantic, aiming more to capture public favor and attention than to uphold standards. It appears that some may be seizing this opportunity to elevate their own image by taking an overly positive stance, potentially at the expense of genuine accountability. The portrayal of critics as being overly harsh or negative is a disappointing tactic that seems misaligned with the serious nature of the issues at hand.
I want to ask these people how that might make the victims, and their families feel. You know – as real life breathing human beings. This brings me back to the 90’s and the tragic Jack in the Box outbreak. If you follow me, you will likely know who Dr. Darin Detwiler is and his unfortunate story that brought him into this industry. He lost his son to E.coli poisoning. He will never see his child again. There is no amount of money that will bring this child back and this was all so another billion-dollar company could make some profits. They had a preventable outbreak, and innocent people lost their lives. Two billion-dollar companies selling dubious, arguably inedible food for profit. When will enough be enough? Check out Dr. Darin’s post on this topic on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/darin-detwiler_foodsafety-publichealth-lessonsfromthepast-activity-7254657437851402243-bi4I?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
No one should die from eating a hamburger they paid money for with the expectation of legality, quality, and safety. Save the gaslights. No one deserves this. Customers pay for food, not pathogens. Companies have a duty to ensure the food they sell for profit does not contain pathogens. Hold the E.coli, salmonella, listeria, etc. Is it really that hard to achieve? (Spoiler alert, it is NOT difficult when food safety systems with efficacy are employed.)
So now I must ask my food safety friends – why does this keep happening? The past few years we’ve seen many mega-corporations (i.e., well established million or billion-dollar companies) assault their customers for profit. That is what this is, an assault. Completely preventable. None of these events had to happen and until everyone stops the circus bandwagon of food safety culture and third-party certifications, real people will continue to be assaulted and die.
We must demand these companies employ competent food safety professionals to lead their organizations. Further, they must listen to the expert and comply with their requests to hold and/or destroy products that could harm consumers. It’s important they do not turn to them in the midst of a recall and say, “you’re excused, this is a business decision.” I’ve heard this more times that a person should in this context.
There is no doubt in my mind, McDonald’s made a conscious decision to approve a known questionable ingredient supplier for a high-risk product at that! McDonald's made this decision, and they are responsible for this outbreak. They had access to recall data and the recalls alone are indicative of ineffective controls. Why would you approve a supplier for such a high-risk ingredient and for such a high volume? What evaluation determined that this was an appropriate decision? Or were effective controls not their desired goal? Their desired goal was likely cost and access. I’m certain they wanted the supplier approval activity to be documented formally, but they did not want the activity to be conducted effectively.
When is McDonald’s going to STFU about their marketing and getting back in the game and start focusing on restitution for these victims and making sure this never happens again? If their only reasonable answer is that they have to remove every vegetable from the menu, it gives me great pause and solidifies my opinion that they do not give much concern to food safety. It is not their main priority, clearly. Serving food that has zero nutritional value is not safe in the long-term. They are telling us, “We do not care enough to put in the time and effort to ensure food safety. We would rather just remove any item that has potential for pathogens from the menu instead. Our main goal is making money.” When will we, as consumers, start listening to what these companies are really telling us and demand change? If this is their attitude what other corners might they cut that could hurt the consumer?
In recent years we’ve watched innocent babies die from drinking premium infant formula brands from Abbott Nutritional[4]. A company with an exemplary GFSI third-party audit score and a 32-page whistleblower report[5] from an insider. How do these two go together? The Feds completely ignored the whistleblower report and now innocent babies are dead.
Three people dead from eating salad from a premium brand, Dole in 2022[6]. A company that also received an exemplary GFSI third-party audit score but resulted in an illness outbreak. This company didn’t skip a beat. They are still profitable and if I mention this to a layperson, they have no idea what I am talking about. It is not common knowledge. The mainstream media does not cover food safety news appropriately or accurately.
Let’s not forget, Boar’s Head[7]. Another premium brand. Here comes the GFSI cartel again, man they are telling us that this place is wonderful look at that audit score. They had an excellent SQF third-party audit score provided by an auditor that appears to have zero experience with ready-to-eat deli meats. This was accompanied by a 44-page USDA/FSIS nonconformance report[8] from regulators with egregious findings. Findings that could not have been hidden from a competent GFSI auditor. They paid to play, and people are dead.
Abbott Nutritional paid to play, and babies are dead from drinking premium infant formula brands. Dole paid to play, and people are dead from eating premium priced salad. Taylor Farms paid to play, and people are dead from eating hamburgers.
Are YOU okay with this? Should we not be so hard on these companies? Cut them some slack?
I’m NOT okay with this and I will never STFU about 🤡🐍 companies. I will continue to report on the harsh reality of these situations and hold these 🤡🐍 to the fire because people do not deserve to die from eating hamburgers, parents don’t deserve to lose their kids because another child ate a hamburger and went to daycare sick with E.coli. (i.e., reference Dr. Darin’s story in this case).
It makes me sick to my stomach and I am ashamed to see knowledgeable professionals give this billion-dollar company grace for murdering its consumers. McDonald’s chose to contract a dog sh*t ingredient supplier as evidenced by the recalls and outbreak events. I can’t wait to see what Bill Marler uncovers in discovery because I know we’ve only just scratched the surface of the depths of fraud and negligence leading to this tragic event.
Wake up, people! McDonald’s does not care about its consumers; it cares about its shareholders.
What are we, as food safety professionals, going to do now? What can we do to make real change and drive effective food safety controls? How do we get consumers to understand what is going on, so that they can advocate for themselves and demand better?
If you work at a company and you see something, say something. If you are in fear of losing your job, please check out the Global Harmonized Initiative (GHI) website for whistleblowing. We assist people all over the world in blowing the whistle on their company anonymously. It is not always an easy thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do. If you see something that could result in the injury or death of a consumer you have a duty to speak up. You have a moral and ethical duty to demand appropriate disposition on the product. If you say nothing, you have blood on your hands.
GHI Whistleblower Food Safety Incident Report Site
https://whistle.globalharmonization.net/language-select
International Food Industry Think Tank
If you want to drive change, join our International Food Industry Think Tank. The group is free to join and meets once a month. New members are welcomed. Meeting registration can be found here: https://conestogac.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqde-tqzkvGd2q24tzvwyQiLxtmmx0dRBI
Authored by: Cori Muse
[2] https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ires/index.cfm#tabNav_advancedSearch
[3] https://www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls?keywords=taylor%20farms&f%5B0%5D=company%3A5599