McDonald’s is served its first lawsuit after a Quarter Pounder E. coli outbreak

Fast-food safety crisis… McDonald’s was hit with its first lawsuit in connection with an E. coli outbreak in some of its Quarter Pounder burgers. Refresher: McD’s stock sank 5% Wednesday after the CDC issued a food-safety alert tying the popular burger to 49 illnesses and one death in 10 US states. Regulators investigating the fast-food co have not confirmed which ingredient was contaminated, but suggested it could be onions. McDonald’s said it’s taken Quarter Pounders off a fifth of its US stores’ menus. Meantime, the FDA said it was investigating McD’s supplier Taylor Farms as a potential source of the spoiled onions; TF said it has recalled four types of its onions so far.

• McDonald’s says that its top priority is “serving customers safely” and that the affected ingredients have “very likely” worked their way out of its supply chain.

• The CDC says that the “true number of sick people is likely much higher than the number reported.”

Burrito blow-up… Investors fear the Quarter Pounder crisis could morph into a Chipotle-level disaster. In 2015, the burrito chain suffered from a years-long E. coli and norovirus outbreak that affected 1K+ diners and resulted in a $25M fine (the largest ever for a food-safety case at the time). Chipotle’s reputation and stock price plummeted, wiping out $6B of its market cap in just a year. For McDonald’s, the Quarter Pounder debacle isn’t its first food crisis, but it could be a meatier one:

• Unwrapped: In 2018, McD’s removed salads from thousands of restaurants after they were linked to nearly 400 cases of intestinal illnesses. But salads aren’t key to the chain’s biz — like burgers — and the brand’s stock didn’t take too big a hit.