When major fast food chains like Taco Bell or McDonald’s are linked to food poisoning outbreaks, the media reacts in a more sensational way and the public tends to assign more weight to these outbreaks. This familiarity makes it seem as if fast food restaurants are responsible for more foodborne illness outbreaks than they actually are. In reality, fast food restaurants cause fewer outbreaks than other restaurants. One reason is that their highly processed ingredients are more shelf-stable. As well, the preparation steps are highly defined and rote, leading to less deviation from food safety protocols.
Fast food poisoning outbreaks are big news. In 1993, four children in Washington state and California died from E, coli contaminated meat from Jack in the Box, while hundreds of other customers became sick. In all, over 700 people were sickened in four states, including Washington, California, Idaho, and Nevada. This was one of the most publicized and serious outbreaks from a restaurant chain in history and it led to USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) for industry to implement the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system at every federally inspected meat and poultry slaughter and processing plant in the United States.
In 2022, an outbreak of E. Coli was linked to Wendy’s fast food restaurants. A total of 109 cases were reported in 6 states, including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and New York. Some of these were quite serious and resulted in hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a condition that can lead to kidney failure. Fortunately, no deaths occurred.
More recently, a major E. coli outbreak was linked to the onions used in Quarter Pounder burgers at McDonald’s. A total of 104 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli were reported from 14 states. 34 cases resulted in hospitalization and 4 of these people developed hemolytic uremic syndrome. One older patient in Colorado died from the infection, although they did not develop HUS.
The contamination occurred in the slivered onions supplied by Taylor Farms. This outbreak affected 13 states and caused McDonald’s to pull Quarter Pounders from its menus in many locations. Other fast food outlets, including Burger King, KFC, and Taco Bell, also pulled fresh onions from some of their restaurants.
Such large, dangerous, and widely reported outbreaks makes the public assume that fast food restaurants are a particular danger and that we are more likely to get food poisoning from eating fast food. The truth is the opposite. While large outbreaks do occur from fast food, you are less likely to develop a foodborne illness from eating fast food than from eating at a privately owned restaurant.
You may be familiar with foodborne illness outbreaks from fast food establishments because they make national news but each year. Perhaps the most powerful reason that people believe fast food is worse is personal anecdotes from friends or family who claim that they got food poisoning from fast food. These reports are often unreliable.
According to CDC data, there are hundreds of verified foodborne illnesses linked to independently owned retail food establishments each year, including restaurants and caterers that you do not hear about. In fact, the majority of these poisoning cases are associated with independently owned restaurants. The most common infection is viral resulting from Norovirus exposure.
During 2017–2019, a total of 800 foodborne illness outbreaks associated with 875 retail food establishments were reported. That is 800 individual outbreaks, not cases.
There are many food safety factors in restaurants that can lead to foodborne illness outbreaks but the most common factors are direct contamination of food by workers (from handling) or from cross-contamination.
Usually, contamination by handling occurs because a worker has an infectious illness. While the public is understandably fearful of outbreaks linked to contamination of the food supply, in restaurants, it is ill workers who are the biggest cause! A deadly outbreak linked to a product, such as the slivered onions supplied to McDonald’s, is unusual compared to outbreaks associated with ill workers and inadequate food safety protocols, including proper glove-wearing practices, hand washing, and, of course, not working while sick.
Crowdsourced Food Poisoning Website
Some sources use data from a website called “Iwaspoisoned” where customers self-report “getting sick from restaurant food.” This is not likely to be accurate. Most people assume that the last meal that they ate made them sick when this is often no the case. Some strains of E. coli can take up to nine days to cause symptoms, while listeria can take nine hours.
As well, self-reports of ‘food poisoning’ with no attempt to confirm that actual food poisoning was present is not a valid way to track foodborne illness outbreaks. Most data claiming high rates of food poisoning from fast food restaurants rely on “crowdsourced data.” This data is completely undependable.
Fast food restaurants, all in all, are safer than privately owned restaurants due to several factors. They use more processed foods subject to more regimented food safety protocols. The preparation steps are also highly regimented with a focus on safety. It is no surprise that most of the problems occur because of workers not adhering to established food safety protocols.
