The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said the deadly E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions served at McDonald’s is over, more than a month after the agency began its probe of the spread.
The CDC said 104 people in 14 states were infected in the outbreak. It led to 27 hospitalizations and one previously reported death of an older adult in Colorado.
The agency first announced the outbreak on Oct. 22. The CDC pointed to fresh slivered onions served on Quarter Pounders and other menu items as the likely source of this outbreak.
Quarter Pounder hamburgers are a core menu item for McDonald’s, raking in billions of dollars each year. The company temporarily removed those burgers from some locations following the outbreak, but has since brought back the menu item. The last illness onset occurred on Oct. 21, a day before the company took action and the CDC announced its investigation.
While the outbreak is formally over, McDonald’s is still dealing with the sales fallout.
Foot traffic to its U.S. restaurants was down 6.6% on Nov. 18 compared with a year earlier, according to a research note from Gordon Haskett. That’s an improvement from a low point of a seven-day rolling average of 11% traffic declines on Oct. 29.
The 10 states that the CDC first connected to the outbreak have seen steeper traffic declines, like a combined fall of 9.5% on Nov. 18, according to the note.
The company will also invest more than $100 million in marketing and targeted financial assistance for affected franchisees.
McDonald’s has brought back its popular McRib, starting Tuesday, despite a “farewell tour” last year. The chain will also roll out a new McValue menu in January, in the hopes of appealing to consumers looking for cheap deals.
“Looking ahead, we must remain laser focused on regaining our customers’ hard-earned trust and reigniting their brand affinity,” Michael Gonda, McDonald’s North American chief impact officer, and Cesar Pina, the company’s North American chief supply chain officer, wrote in an internal memo on Tuesday.
Shares of McDonald’s have fallen 7% since the CDC first linked the chain’s Quarter Pounders to the outbreak. The company has a market cap of $209.6 billion.
