According to Zhuotong Finance and Economics, Joe Erlinger, the president of mcdonald's (mcd.us), stated on Wednesday that mcdonald's needs to rebuild public trust. Mcdonald's urgently removed Quarter Pounder burgers from menus in restaurants in more than a dozen states in the USA on Wednesday to contain the damage caused by the e.coli outbreak associated with the burger. The company stated that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and mcdonald's are carefully examining the onion slices and beef patties supplied by the company, trying to determine the cause of the outbreak. A spokesperson added that the company has not ruled out the possibility that beef is part of the outbreak.

Tom Skinner, a spokesperson for the CDC in the USA, said: "We fully expect to see more cases. Mcdonald's has taken rapid action, hoping to prevent such events from occurring as much as possible."

Erlinger, appearing on a US television show on Wednesday, pointed out that mcdonald's has taken action to quickly remove the Quarter Pounder from the menu in the areas where the incident occurred. He said: "Given the events of the past 24 hours, our top priority is to enhance the confidence of American consumers."

Earlier, in 0.014 million restaurants across the USA, one-fifth of the restaurants had removed the Quarter Pounder burger from the menu. This food safety incident has resulted in one death and nearly 50 illnesses. According to the CDC investigating the outbreak, the outbreak has affected people in the western and midwestern USA, with 10 people being hospitalized for severe complications.

Mcdonald's is not the first case of an e.coli food safety incident. Several large American fast food chains have previously experienced e.coli outbreaks, causing consumers to avoid these chains for months. The e.coli O157:H7 strain that caused the mcdonald's outbreak is the same strain involved in the Jack in the Box (jack.us) incident in California in 1993 that resulted in the deaths of four children. Shari Shea, director of food safety at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, said it can cause "very serious diseases," especially in the elderly, children, and immunocompromised individuals.

A spokesperson for mcdonald's said that their suppliers regularly test their products and conduct tests within the outbreak date range provided by the CDC, but none of the suppliers identified this e.coli strain.

Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CFRA Research, said: "The worst case scenario is, if more people get sick, or if multiple ingredients or suppliers are affected, this could be a long-term problem and could damage the brand."

In the past, two famous E. coli outbreaks in the USA - the 2015 Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG.US) and the 1993 Jack in the Box - severely impacted the sales of these chain restaurants.

Analyst Brian Vaccaro of Raymond James pointed out that it took Chipotle Mexican Grill a year and a half to stabilize, while Jack in the Box saw declining sales for four consecutive quarters. Following reports of norovirus cases after the E. coli outbreak, Chipotle Mexican Grill's stock price dropped nearly 50% from 2015 to 2018.

Analysts suggest that McDonald's fourth-quarter sales may face some pressure from this incident, but it's still too early to say if this incident will be more severe than the previous two E. coli outbreaks. A JPMorgan analyst stated in a report that the company's swift identification of potential epidemic sources and measures to replenish supply should be able to address the issue.