Food and Drug Administration officials turned up dozens of violations at a McDonald’s supplier linked to a deadly outbreak of E. coli that led to more than a hundred infections and a sweeping recall of onions used in the fast food chain’s products, including its Quarter Pounder burgers.
The violations, detailed in an inspection report released to CBS News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, were seen during an inspection of a food production facility in Colorado run by Taylor Farms.
Their findings amounted to the FDA issuing the McDonald’s supplier a so-called Form 483, a list of citations over conditions inspectors worried could be “injurious to health.”
That facility had been tasked with supplying “slivered onions” to McDonald’s restaurants across a broad swath of states. Taylor Farms also produces a number of other products, including salads it sells in grocery stores as safe and ready to eat.
For restaurants, Taylor Farms bills its products as a “prep-less kitchen solution,” allowing food service workers to skip the usual preparation steps they would need to use with ordinary produce that should be washed and cut before eating.