McDonald’s has announced a significant investment of $100 million aimed at restoring customer confidence and bringing patrons back into its restaurants following a reported E. coli food poisoning incident associated with its Quarter Pounder hamburgers.
This financial commitment includes $65 million specifically earmarked for franchises that were most negatively impacted by the outbreak.

The incident is attributed to slivered onions used on the Quarter Pounders, which were identified as the likely source of the E. coli outbreak by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In response to the health concern, Taylor Farms, a California-based company, issued a recall for the onions that were suspected to have caused the illness.

In terms of reported cases, Colorado saw a total of 30 illnesses, Montana 19, Nebraska 13, and New Mexico had 10 cases.
These cases were recorded between September 12 and October 21, resulting in at least 104 individuals falling ill and 34 requiring hospitalization, as reported by federal health authorities.

Despite the outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration has stated that “there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants.”
However, the incident has negatively affected the company’s sales figures.
During the initial stages of the outbreak, Quarter Pounders were temporarily removed from several state menus.
McDonald’s managed to secure an alternative supplier for the 900 locations that had stopped serving the sandwiches with onions.
Recently, the company has successfully reinstated the Quarter Pounders with slivered onions across all its restaurants in the United States.