Foodborne illnesses have been reported in restaurants over the years.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

Outbreaks of foodborne illness are extremely rare for well-known restaurant chains, but they still occur.

E. coli linked to food poisoning outbreak this week McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers sickened at least 49 people in 10 states; One of them died and 10 were hospitalized.

McDonald’s has stopped distributing chopped onions and temporarily removed the Quarter Pounder from menus in many states.

Here’s a brief history of some recent incidents that have upset customers, disrupted businesses, and sometimes changed food safety regulations in the United States.

Wendy’s

Wendy’s In August 2022, it removed lettuce from sandwiches at its restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania after some people reported falling ill.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was trying to determine whether romaine lettuce was the source of the E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 37 people and whether the romaine lettuce used at Wendy’s was also served or sold at other businesses.

One person also became ill in Indiana, according to the CDC.

chipotle

In 2015, Chipotle was hit by an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people and dozens of restaurants on the West Coast temporarily closed, but that was just the beginning. A month later, 30 Boston College students, at least eight of whom were members of the men’s basketball team, was complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms After eating at Chipotle restaurant.

Federal officials declared the outbreak over in February 2016, but the chain closed all of its restaurants. retraining employees and let them regroup.

But by the end of the year, Chipotle Co-CEO Montgomery Moran resigns after falling sales.

in 2020 chipotle Mexican Grille has agreed to pay a record $25 million fine to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people in the United States between 2015 and 2018.

The company admitted that poor safety practices, such as failing to keep food at proper temperatures to prevent pathogen growth, sickened customers in Los Angeles and nearby Simi Valley, as well as Boston, Sterling, Virginia, and Powell, Ohio.

Today, Chipotle is among the best-performing restaurant chains in the United States, with nearly $10 billion in sales last year.

Tako Bell

In December 2006, Taco Bell ordered the removal of green onions from 5,800 of its restaurants nationwide after samples taken by researchers were found to contain a hardy strain of E. coli. The outbreak has sickened at least 71 people in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with most of them hospitalized, according to the CDC.

Eight people developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic-uremic syndrome.

It was eventually determined that contaminated lettuce was the likely cause, with the vegetable used in numerous dishes on the menu.

Taco Bell almost immediately launched a newspaper ad and sent its president on a series of media interviews to reassure customers that their food was safe.

Taco Bell has fully recovered, with sales rising 6% last year as the company opened more than 200 new locations.

Jack in the Box

Undercooking was found to be the cause of four deaths and more than 700 illnesses in Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada between 1992 and 1993. Jack in the Box Restaurant hamburgers contaminated with E. coli.

Experts say the investigation by federal regulators is changing regulatory practices in the United States.

An investigation by the CDC identified five slaughter facilities in the U.S. and one in Canada as possible sources of animals used in contaminated meat batches and identified potential checkpoints to reduce the likelihood of contamination. Animals slaughtered at domestic slaughterhouses were traced to farms and auctions in six western states. No slaughterhouse or farm was specified as the source.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has mandated a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system that helps identify and control hazards in the food production system. The system provided greater monitoring and control to quickly limit the spread of outbreaks.

Jack in the Box lost more than $44 million in 1993 and did not post an annual profit for the next three years.

The company has fully recovered and reported sales of $1.7 billion last year; This is the third consecutive year of double-digit sales growth.

First Publication Date: 24 October 2024, 11:03