Bill Marler on McDonald’s E. coli outbreak

What do we make of McDonald’s E. coli outbreak?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Bill Marler, the country’s leading attorney on food safety issues and foodborne illness outbreaks. 

Marler is with the law firm Marler Clark. He has represented victims of outbreaks and consulted with companies on foodborne-illness issues for more than 30 years. We wanted to talk with him about the situation at McDonald’s.

As of now at least 75 people in 13 states, and likely many more, have been sickened after eating Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s. The issue appears to be linked to slivered onions.

We discuss this, how rare it is for McDonald’s to be involved in an outbreak like this, proving that it can happen to anybody. Marler gives us a lot of historical context. We talk about why beef has been relatively safe for the past 30 years but why vegetables—such as onions—now appear to be frequent causes of E. coli outbreaks.

And we talk about what companies can do to ensure that their food supply is safe.

We’re talking McDonald’s E. coli on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.