An E Coli outbreak caused by McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has sparked new fears about the safety of fast food.
But according to a new report, Americans shouldn’t worry about burgers, but rather salads.
Sweetgreen, a Los Angeles-based salad company with a mission to disrupt fast food, was the worst illness offender among major brands, according to the report.
Diners who ate there were 10 times more likely to get sick from food poisoning or an upset stomach than the average at other restaurants.
Applebee’s came in second, with its diners 150 percent more likely to get sick than average, and McDonald’s came in third, with customers 60 percent more likely overall.
For the report, researchers monitored illness reports from 70,000 restaurants through 2023 to calculate an average per 100 restaurants. They then compared this to the rate of illness reports per 100 restaurants per chain during the same year.
comes later McDonald’s was forced to remove the Quarter Pounder from a fifth of its restaurants on Tuesday last week, after a CDC investigation linked its onions to an E Coli outbreak that sickened 75 people and killed one.
Days later, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut also removed onions from their stores as a “proactive” measure.
McDonald’s has added the quarter pounder back to its menus and the outbreak appears to be slowing.
The above, published this year, is the iwaspoisoned.com report’s estimate of the probability of getting sick each year for major brands (black dotted line)
The map above is intended to show the top reports of restaurant food problems by state from 2012 to 2023. It is based on unverified reports and is calculated based on the total number of reports.
But as concerns about food security grow, report of I was poisoned.comhighlights restaurants that are more likely to make you sick than others.
The quick salad company had a food poisoning rate 11 times higher than the site’s benchmark, which represented an industry average based on locations, complaints and revenue.
To calculate rates, the website determined a food poisoning ‘benchmark’, which represents industry averages for 108,000 food poisoning reports from 70,000 restaurants across the United States.
Rates take into account and are adjusted for revenue, the number of locations a business has and the number of food poisoning complaints a chain has.
These measures Provide a more fair comparison of a brand’s performance to industry averages.
Based on these methods, iwaspoisoned.com determined that Sweetgreen was by far the worst offender, with an 11 times higher risk of food poisoning.
The reason Sweetgreen topped the list was unclear, but experts suggested it could be due to the fact that the chain’s fresh produce was not heated before being served, a practice that reduces the chances of killing harmful bacteria.
With positive results, Dairy Queen, Subway and Pizza Hut had lower risks of food poisoning compared to the industry benchmark.
The website, I was poisoned.comcollects consumer complaints about upset stomachs and food poisoning, as well as the names of restaurants they believe caused their illnesses.
The claims are not officially verified and anyone can report an illness, but the website says they can be a good indicator of an emerging outbreak.
Mitzi Baum, chief executive of Stop Foodborne Illness, which campaigns for safer food, said the site was “interesting” and “has been useful in tracking potential cluster illnesses and larger outbreaks”.
Restaurant chains criticize the team, saying it is unreliable because it allows anonymous and unverified submissions, which they say can lead to false reports.
Some public health officials have also objected, saying victims may not always be able to correctly identify what made them sick.
Clarissa DeBrock, a 33-year-old Nebraska mother, is suing McDonald’s saying she believes its quarter pounders caused her illness.
Burger onions (pictured) have been at the center of an investigation into an E. coli outbreak that has so far affected 49 people, put ten in hospital and left one dead.
in a separate report Starting last year, iwaspoisoned.com collected and compared the number of food poisoning complaints related to fast food businesses in each state.
For this report, the website used the raw number of complaints from fast food companies. It did not calculate rates based on food poisoning complaints related to the number of restaurants in each state.
McDonald’s had the most complaints in 23 of the 50 U.S. states, or 46 percent.
Chipotle came in second place, being the most claimed fast food chain in 20 states.
Taco Bell ranked third, causing the most illnesses in five states, and Chick-Fil-A ranked fourth, topping the list in two states.
The analysis included 13,900 McDonald’s stores; 7,300 Taco Bell restaurants; 3,000 chipotles; and 2,700 Chick-fil-As.
Anyone can submit a report online, which is then checked by moderators to make sure it’s not a prank or spam. Most are included in the website counts.
The latest McDonald’s outbreak was not detected by the system, although the website’s founder Patrick Quade told DailyMail.com they were “consistently” receiving complaints about the company, averaging around 500 a month.
One complaint they received during the outbreak was from an individual and his son in Utah, and both said they got sick after eating a quarter pounder.
Presented on October 2, it said: ‘A few days (after eating at McDonald’s). I started vomiting everything (including water) several times a day and had chills with a slight fever. My symptoms lasted about two weeks.
‘My son also got sick but he didn’t vomit. However, he had diarrhea for several days and went to an InstaCare when he started bleeding.’
The map above shows the states where illnesses related to the recent E. coli outbreak have been reported.
The above shows a timeline of when people reported getting sick, based on patients.
Clarissa DeBrock, who says she felt sick after eating at McDonald’s, is among those revealing she is suing the fast food giant.
The 33-year-old said she consumed a quarter-pounder while dining at her local McDonald’s in North Platte, Nebraska, last month with her fiancé and two-year-old son.
The hamburger looked and tasted normal, but five days later she began to suffer from abdominal cramps, diarrhea and nausea. His symptoms became so severe that on September 25 he was admitted to the emergency room.
He tested positive for the same strain of E. coli that was behind the McDonald’s outbreak and believes the restaurant’s food caused his illness.
On Sunday, McDonald’s revealed that tests had shown that its Quarter Pounder beef burgers were not behind the outbreak.
The company said dozens of tests had been performed on subsamples of burgers in Colorado, and all came back negative.
They also said Sunday that the Quarter Pounder would now return to the restaurants from which it was removed, although 900 establishments would no longer contain onions, while they continue to search for a second supplier.
Vineet Dubey, an attorney and partner at Custodio and Dubey LLP in Los Angeles, described the outbreak that has hit McDonald’s as “very serious.”
“Many people get sick from E. coli diarrhea for a few days before they get better,” he said.
“But if the food poisoning is severe enough to put someone in the hospital, then it could be actionable from a legal perspective.”