McDonald's is resuming sales of its Quarter Pounder hamburgers in all of its U.S. restaurants after ruling out its beef patties as the source of an E. coli which left at least one person dead and dozens of others sick.
The fast food giant said samples of its beef patties taken by the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) tested negative for the bacteria.
The company added that the CDA has no plans to conduct additional testing.
McDonald's suspended Quarter Pounder sales at about a fifth of its U.S. restaurants last week in response to the outbreak.
“The issue appears to be limited to a particular ingredient and geographic area, and we remain confident that any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain,” said Cesar Piña, chain director of supply of McDonald's for North America, in a press release. .
Previously, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration identified chopped onions in Quarter Pounders as another potential source of the outbreak.
McDonald's said it stopped working with the onion supplier and removed it from its supply chain.
“The 900 restaurants that historically received chopped onions from Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility will resume sales of Quarter Pounders without chopped onions,” McDonald's said.
McDonald's is facing lawsuits from several people who have fallen ill.
