CBS filed a Freedom of Information Act with the FDA over the deadly McDonald’s E. coli outbreak linked to Taylor Farms onions. The report states that Taylor Farms safety issues yielded contaminated onions. And the report states that dozens of violations were found by FDA inspectors.. The FDA issued a Form 483, which is only used when inspectors think that conditions exist that could be “injurious to health.”
In that outbreak, at least 104 people were sickened, 34 were hospitalized, and one person died. Four people developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure. The outbreak, which ended in October 2024, was the sixth largest outbreak of 2024.
The report states that Taylor Farms did not implement their sanitation preventive controls. Pooling water was found on the floors, and Listeria species were found in that water. Lots of equipment in the plant had large amounts of food debris and biofilms, which can protect bacteria and other pathogens from cleaning equipment. The debris and biofilms were observed after “required cleaning procedures.”
According to the report, “Employees were observed to only sanitize their gloved hands after they touch insanitary surfaces and resume touching RTE food and various food contact surfaces. Employees were not observed removing gloves, washing hands, and donning new gloves. According to firm management, it is common practice for employees to only use hand sanitizer stations in the production areas.”
Some employees were observed not using any handwashing sinks in the facility. An employee with gloved hands touched a hose on the floor and then touched food contact surfaces.
And sanitizers were apparently used incorrectly. Inspectors found that some solutions had a concentration of chemicals that was too high, and the company didn’t know how a recipe for another cleaning solution was developed. In addition, equipment, which is supposed to air dry after being sanitized, was used while still wet. That means the solution could have been applied to ready to eat produce.
When the outbreak was discovered, Taylor Farms recalled thousands of cases of ready to eat onions that had been sold to food service facilities in six states.
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