Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC pull onions after E. coli outbreak in U.S.

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Yum! Brands Inc. and Burger King removed onions from some of their locations as the restaurant industry investigates an E. Coli outbreak first traced to McDonald’s Corp.

Yum withdrew fresh onions from some Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC locations “out of an abundance of caution,” the company said Thursday in a statement to Bloomberg News, without disclosing which stores and regions were affected or naming suppliers.

“We will continue following supplier and regulatory guidance to ensure the ongoing safety and quality of our food,” the company said.

Burger King said Thursday that it gets some of its onions from a Colorado facility run by Taylor Farms, which supplied the McDonald’s restaurants that have been impacted by the outbreak.

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Taylor Farms issued a recall of some its yellow onion batches despite finding no traces of E. coli as of Wednesday. Restaurant distributors US Foods Holding Corp. and Sysco Corp. have also notified customers of the recall.

“Despite no contact from health authorities and no indications of illness, we proactively asked our 5% of restaurants who received whole onions distributed by this facility to dispose of them immediately two days ago and we are in the process of restocking them from other facilities,” Burger King said.

The restaurant industry is on alert after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that an E. coli outbreak likely tied to pre-slivered onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders sickened dozens of people in the U.S. and killed one. Burger King said it buys whole onions that are cut, peeled and sliced in its restaurants.

McDonald’s pulled the popular product from about 20% of its more than 13,000 U.S. restaurants, and it’s working with health authorities to confirm the source of the contamination.