The U.S. government said Tuesday it has closed its investigation into an E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers after determining there is no longer a safety risk.
The outbreak, which was first reported Oct. 22, sickened at least 104 people in 14 states, including 34 who were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One person in Colorado died and four people developed a potentially life-threatening kidney disease complication.
The FDA, which conducted the investigation along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments, linked the outbreak to yellow onions distributed by California-based Taylor Farms and served raw on Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and other states.
There have been no new cases reported since Oct. 21, when McDonald's pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu in the affected states, the CDC said Tuesday. Taylor Farms initiated a voluntary recall of yellow onions on Oct. 22.
Federal and state health officials in Colorado didn’t find the strain of E. coli that caused the illnesses in onions it tested or in any samples from the environment. But they concluded that evidence showed that recalled yellow onions were the likely source of the outbreak.
“McDonald’s is no longer serving recalled onions and there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak,” the FDA said Tuesday in a statement.
McDonald's briefly pulled Quarter Pounders from 3,000 U.S. stores as a result of the outbreak, then narrowed that to 900 stores once testing had pinpointed onions — and not hamburger patties — as the likely source of E. coli. The company found an alternate supplier and resumed selling Quarter Pounders with slivered onions at all U.S. stores last month.
But the outbreak has hurt demand. In mid-November, McDonald's said it planned to spend $100 million to bring customers back to stores, including $65 million that will go directly to the hardest-hit franchisees.
Chicago-based McDonald's wouldn't say Tuesday whether its sales have returned to normal levels in the affected regions. But it thanked U.S. regulators for their quick action and said it remains confident in its rigorous food-safety standards.
McDonald's last major food-safety issue happened in 2018, when more than 500 people contracted an intestinal illness after eating its salads.
McDonald's also declined to comment Tuesday on legal action against the company as a result of the E. coli outbreak.
Nicole and Richard West of Townsend, Montana, are suing McDonald’s after their 11-month-old daughter, Logan, was hospitalized in October with E. coli poisoning. The toddler ate a few bites of her father’s Quarter Pounder hamburger with onions during a family road trip on Oct. 2.
She fell ill a few days later with severe vomiting and diarrhea. Her mother rushed her to the hospital, where she was found to be infected with E. coli O157:H7, which can cause life-threatening illness, particularly in young children.
Richard West also fell ill but didn’t seek medical attention because he was at home caring for the family’s other children. He lost more than two weeks of work as a truck driver because of the outbreak and the family faces a barrage of medical expenses.
Nicole West said Tuesday that Logan's health has improved but the outbreak has shaken the family’s confidence in the fast-food giant.
“With kids, when you want to go out to eat, they want to go to McDonald’s. They want to get a Happy Meal,” West said. “But we just don’t trust it anymore.”
This image provided by Nicole West shows Logan West, 11 months old, of Townsend, Mont., who was sickened in October in an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to slivered onions served on McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers. (Nicole West via AP)
CHIBA, Japan (AP) — A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced an Australian woman to six years in prison for smuggling amphetamines into the country, despite accepting her testimony that she was tricked as part of an online romance scam.
The Chiba District Court said it found Donna Nelson, 58, from Perth, Australia, guilty of violating the stimulants control and customs laws. It ordered her to pay a fine of 1 million yen ($6,671) in addition to serving a prison term.
Nelson was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, on Jan. 3, 2023, after customs officials found about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of phenylaminopropane, a stimulant, hidden under a false bottom in a suitcase she was carrying as checked luggage.
Nelson told the court that she did not know that drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she hoped to marry.
The man, whom she met online in 2020, told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business. In 2023, he paid to travel to Japan via Laos, and asked her to collect dress samples from an acquaintance in Laos, the court said in the ruling. She was supposed to meet him in Japan but he never showed up, according to prosecutors.
Nelson has already been in custody for nearly two years. The court said 430 days of that will be counted toward her sentence.
Presiding Judge Masakazu Kamakura said that although Nelson was deceived, she had a sense that something was wrong with the arrangement and that something illegal could be hidden in the suitcase, and she could have stopped.
Kamakura said Nelson was taken advantage of her desire to marry the man and that there is room for “sympathy” for what she did.
He imposed a shorter sentence than would be typical for the amount of drugs she was carrying, after prosecutors had demanded 10 years in prison and a fine of 3 million yen (about $20,000).
Nelson’s lawyer Rie Nishida said the ruling was unjust and that she planned to appeal. “We will fight until the end,” she said.
On Wednesday, Nelson sobbed as the verdict was read out. One of her daughters, Kristal Hilaire, wiped away tears as she looked on from her seat in the audience.
“We are disappointed and devastated by the court’s verdict in our mum’s case," Hilaire told reporters outside the court. “We maintain that our mum was the victim of a romance scam. She is the victim of a crime and not a criminal. She has always been against drugs.”
Hilaire said the past few weeks had been a difficult time for the family but that they have come together to support each other and Nelson during the trial, and that they will keep fighting “until we can bring her home.”
But Hillaire said she is worried about her mother, devastated and much thinner. “I worry about how she would handle another six years.”
Several other family members who attended earlier sessions, seeing Nelson for the first time since her arrest nearly two years ago, returned home ahead of the verdict.
Associated Press video journalists Mayuko Ono in Chiba and Ayaka McGill in Tokyo contributed.
Kristal Hilaire, a daughter of Australian citizen Donna Nelson, speaks to reporters at the Chiba District Court before the verdict for Nelson in a drug smuggling case, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)
Kristal Hilaire, a daughter of Australian citizen Donna Nelson, speaks to reporters at the Chiba District Court after the verdict for Nelson in a drug smuggling case, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)
Kristal Hilaire, a daughter of Australian citizen Donna Nelson, speaks to reporters at the Chiba District Court after the verdict for Nelson in a drug smuggling case, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)
The Chiba District Court is seen where the opening day of the trial over Australian citizen Donna Nelson for allegedly attempting to import drugs into Japan is taking place Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Chiba, near Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Family members of Australian citizen Donna Nelson walk out from the Chiba District Court after the opening day of the trial over Nelson for allegedly attempting to import drugs into Japan Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Chiba, east of Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
