By Anita Hamilton

As the confirmed number of people sickened by a strain of the E. coli bacteria has grown to 75 people, shares of McDonald's were down 3% midday Friday.

Announced Tuesday afternoon by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, the outbreak has been tied to the fast-food chain's Quarter Pounders, and more specifically, the slivered onions on them. McDonald's stock fell 5% on Wednesday in response to the news. It is down 7% from its closing level on Tuesday, currently trading around $293 a share.

The 75 people infected are now in 13 states, up from the 10 reported earlier in the week. Twenty-two have been hospitalized and one has died. The most cases are in Colorado, with 26, followed by 13 in Montana, and 11 in Nebraska.

In a statement issued late Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration said that the onion supplier, Taylor Farms, had issued a voluntary recall and that other food-service customers also received the onions. "Customers who received recalled onions have been directly notified of the recall," it said.

Other fast-food chains have begun pulling onions from their supply chains. Burger King has asked its restaurants that received onions from Taylor Farms' Colorado facility to "dispose of them immediately," a spokesperson said. Shares of Burger King's parent company, Restaurant Brands, were down 1.9% Friday.

Yum! Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, has removed fresh onions from "select" restaurants "out of an abundance of caution," it said. Its share price was stable Friday at $133.

Taylor Farms didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.

McDonald's said earlier this week that it was "temporarily removing" the Quarter Pounder from restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

"McDonald's maintains strict food safety standards and protocols and take our approach to food safety management extremely seriously," the company said.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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October 25, 2024 14:04 ET (18:04 GMT)

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