An E Coli outbreak caused by McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has sparked new fears about fast food safety.
But according to a new report, it’s not burgers Americans need to worry about — but rather salads.
Sweetgreen, a Los Angeles-based salad company with a mission to change fast food, was the worst offender for illnesses among major brands, the report said.
Diners who ate there were 10 times more likely to get sick with food poisoning or a stomach upset than the average for other restaurants.
Applebee’s came second, with diners being 150 percent more likely to get sick than the average, and McDonald’s came third, with customers 60 percent more likely overall.
For the report, investigators monitored reports of sickness for 70,000 restaurants over the year 2023 to calculate an average per 100 restaurants. They then compared this to the rate of sickness reports per 100 restaurants per chain for the same year.
It comes after McDonald’s was forced to pull the Quarter Pounder from a fifth of its restaurants on Tuesday last week, after a CDC investigation linked its onions to an outbreak of E Coli that has sickened 75 people and killed one.
Days later, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut also pulled onions from their stores as a ‘proactive’ measure.
McDonald’s has added the Quarter pounder to its menus once again and the outbreak seems to be slowing.
The above, released this year, is the estimate from iwaspoisoned.com’s report of the likelihood of getting sick every year for major brands (black dotted line)
The above map claims to show the top restaurant for food issue reports by state from 2012 to 2023. It is based on unverified reports, and calculated by total number of reports
But as concerns about food safety rise, the report from iwaspoisoned.com, highlights restaurants that may be more likely to make you sick than others.
The fast 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 restaurant locations across the US.
The rates take into account and adjust for revenue, the number of locations a company has and the number of food poisoning complaints a chain has.
These measurements provide a more equitable comparison of a brand’s performance against industry averages.
Based on these methods, iwaspoisoned.com determined Sweetgreen was the worst offender by far, with an 11-fold higher food poisoning risk.
The reason Sweetgreen topped the list was unclear, but experts suggested it may be due to the fact that the chain’s fresh produce was not heated before being served — a practice that reduces the chances of eliminating harmful bacteria.
With positive outcomes, Dairy Queen, Subway and Pizza Hut all had decreased food poisoning risks compared to the industry benchmark.
The website, iwaspoisoned.com, compiles complaints of stomach upsets and food poisonings from consumers as well as the names of the restaurants they believe caused their illness.
The claims are not officially verified, and anyone can report an illness — but the website says they can be a good bellwether of an emerging outbreak.
Mitzi Baum, the CEO of Stop Foodborne Illness — which campaigns for safer food — said the site was ‘interesting’ and ‘has been helpful to track 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 reporting.
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 mother-of-one from Nebraska, is suing McDonald’s saying she believes their Quarter Pounders caused her illness
The onions from the burgers (pictured) have been at the center of an investigation into an E.coli outbreak that has so far hit 49 people, put ten in hospital and left one dead
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In a separate report from last year, iwaspoisoned.com compiled and compared the number of food poisoning complaints related to fast food companies in each state.
For this report, the website used the raw number of complaints for 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 America’s 50 states — or 46 percent.
Chipotle came second, being the most complained about fast food chain in 20 states.
Taco Bell came third, causing the most illnesses in five states, and Chick-Fil-A was 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 are then checked by moderators to ensure they are not a joke or spam. Most are included in the website’s tallies.
The system did not detect the latest outbreak from McDonald’s, although the website’s founder Patrick Quade told DailyMail.com they were ‘consistently’ receiving complaints about the company — averaging about 500 a month.
One complaint they’ve received during the outbreak was from an individual and their son in Utah — with both saying they got sick after eating a Quarter Pounder.
Submitted on October 2, it read: ‘Within a few days [of eating at McDonald’s]. I started throwing up everything (including water) multiple times per day and had the chills with a slight fever. My symptoms lasted for about two weeks.
‘My son also got sick but did not throw up. However, he did have diarrhea for several days and went to an InstaCare once it became bloody.’
The above map shows the states where illnesses linked to the recent E. coli outbreak have been reported
The above shows a timeline of when people reported getting sick, according to the patients
Clarissa DeBrock, who says she was sickened after eating at McDonald’s, is among those to reveal 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 burger looked and tasted normal, but five days later she started to suffer from abdominal cramps, diarrhea and nausea. Her symptoms became so severe that on September 25 she was admitted to the ER.
She tested positive for the same strain of E.coli as behind the McDonald’s outbreak, and believes that food from the restaurant caused her illness.
On Sunday, McDonald’s revealed that tests had shown that its Quarter Pounder beef patties were not behind the outbreak.
The company said dozens of tests on subsamples from patties had been carried out in Colorado, which all came back negative.
On Sunday, they also said that the Quarter Pounder would now return to the restaurants where it was withdrawn — although in 900 locations it would no longer contain onions, as they continue to seek 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 diarrhea with E.coli for a few days before getting better,’ he said.
‘But if the food poisoning is bad enough to land someone in the hospital, then it could be actionable from a legal perspective.’
