McDonald's sued by Colorado man sickened in E. coli outbreak
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McDonald’s and the US CDC are scrutinising the company’s supplies of slivered onions and beef patties as they try to determine the cause of the outbreak.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK - A Colorado man has filed what appears to be the first lawsuit against McDonald’s over an E. coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounder burgers that has killed one person and sickened nearly 50 others.
The lawsuit, filed in Circuit Court in Cook County, Illinois, on Oct 23, alleges that Mr Eric Stelly ate food from a Greeley, Colorado, McDonald’s on Oct 4 and tested positive for E. coli a few days later.
Colorado health officials later told Mr Stelly that his E. coli was connected to the McDonald’s outbreak, the lawsuit said.
Mr Stelly lives in Greeley, but sued McDonald’s in Chicago, where the company is based.
The lawsuit, which seeks more than US$50,000 (S$66,000) in damages, claims McDonald’s was negligent in its handling and care of the food.
Shares pared gains after news of the lawsuit and were last up 0.5 per cent.
Representatives of McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McDonald’s USA president Joe Erlinger on Oct 23 said the fast-food chain needs to rebuild trust with the public after it pulled the item off its menu at a fifth of its 14,000 US restaurants.
The outbreak has sickened people across the US West and Midwest, with one dead and 10 hospitalised due to serious complications, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mr Ron Simon, an attorney representing Mr Stelly, said he is representing another 15 people who were impacted by the outbreak.
The CDC and McDonald’s are scrutinising the company’s supplies of slivered onions and beef patties as they try to determine the cause of the outbreak, the company said.
The US Department of Agriculture said late on Oct 23 that the onions used were the likely source of the illness, though one of its state partners is testing samples of the beef for E. coli.
The E. coli O157:H7 strain that led to the McDonald’s outbreak is the same as a strain linked to a 1993 incident at Jack in the Box that killed four children.
McDonald’s suppliers test their products frequently and did so in the date range the CDC gave for the outbreak, and none of them identified this E. coli strain, company spokespeople said. REUTERS
