McDonald's crisis reveals veg contamination is a harder problem than beef

Moves by major US fast-food chains to temporarily scrub fresh onions off their menus on Thursday, after the vegetable was named as the likely source of an E coli outbreak at McDonald's, laid bare the recurring nightmare for restaurants: Produce is a bigger problem for restaurants to keep free of contamination than beef.

Onions are likely the culprit in the McDonald's E coli outbreak across the Midwest and some Western states that has sickened 49 people and killed one, the US Department of Agriculture said late on Wednesday. The company pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu at one-fifth of its 14,000 US restaurants.

In past years, beef patties dominated the dockets of foodborne illness lawyers, before US federal health regulators cracked down on beef contamination after an E coli outbreak linked to Jack in the Box burgers hospitalized more than 170 people across states and killed four. As a result, beef-related outbreaks became much rarer, experts say.

"Produce is a much harder problem," said Mike Taylor, a lawyer who played leadership roles in safety efforts at the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture, and today is on the board of a nonprofit called STOP Foodborne Illness.