1992–1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak

The 1992–1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak occurred when the Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacterium (originating from contaminated beef patties) killed 4 children and infected 732 people across four US states. The outbreak involved 73 Jack in the Box restaurants in California, Idaho, Washington, and Nevada, and has been described as "far and away the most infamous food poison outbreak in contemporary history." The majority of the affected were under 10 years old. Four children died and 178 others were left with permanent injury including kidney and brain damage.
On February 10, 1993, newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton participated in a televised town meeting program from the studios of WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. He fielded questions from the studio audience as well as studio audiences in Miami, Florida, and Seattle, and responded to questions from the parents of Riley Detwiler – the fourth and final child to die in the E. coli outbreak. The wide media coverage and scale of the outbreak were responsible for "bringing the exotic-sounding bacterium out of the lab and into the public consciousness," but it was not the first E. coli O157:H7 outbreak resulting from undercooked patties. The bacterium had previously been identified in an outbreak of food poisoning in 1982 (traced to undercooked burgers sold by McDonald's restaurants in Oregon and Michigan). Before the Jack in the Box incident, there had been 22 documented outbreaks in the United States resulting in 35 deaths.
On January 12, 1993, Phil Tarr, then a pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Washington and Seattle's Children's Hospital, filed a report with the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) about a perceived cluster of children with bloody diarrhea and Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) likely caused by E. coli O157:H7. Tarr contacted John Kobayashi, the Washington State epidemiologist, who started the epidemiological trace-back, linking these cases to undercooked hamburger patties. Dr. Kobayashi recalled the conversation in an interview: "I knew that, when Phil called me,...for him to say, 'this is something that I've never seen before,' that was a big red flag."
Health inspectors traced the contamination to Jack in the Box fast food restaurants' and their "Monster Burger" which had been on a special promotion (using the slogan "So good it's scary!") and sold at a discounted price. The ensuing high demand "overwhelmed" the restaurants' food safety protocols, such that the patties were not cooked long enough or at a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria.
On Monday, January 18, 1993, DOH officials went public with an announcement about the source of the E. coli O157 outbreak at the state lab. After that press conference, Jack in the Box agreed to stop serving hamburgers and to quarantine the meat patties. Two days later, on the same day of President Bill Clinton's inauguration, a powerful storm swept through the Puget Sound area (Seattle and King County). The storm ravaged the area, knocking out power for thousands of residents across three counties, with some living in the dark for 5 days. The power outage impacted restaurants' proper cooking temperatures and safe refrigeration temperatures, and even hindered thorough hand-washing – all critical factors in preventing foodborne illnesses.
At a 1993 press conference, the president of Foodmaker (the parent company of Jack in the Box) blamed Vons Companies, the supplier of their hamburger meat, for the E. coli epidemic. However, the Jack in the Box fast-food restaurant chain had knowledge of but disregarded Washington state laws which required burgers to be cooked to 155 °F (68 °C), the temperature necessary to completely kill E. coli. Instead, it adhered to the federal standard of 140 °F (60 °C). If Jack in the Box followed the state cooking standard, the outbreak would have been prevented, according to court documents and experts from the Washington State Health Department.
The subsequent investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified five slaughterhouses in the United States and one in Canada as "the likely sources of ... the contaminated lots of meat." In February 1998, Foodmaker agreed to accept $58.5 million from Vons and eight other beef suppliers to settle the lawsuit, which had been initiated in 1993.
A total of 171 people required hospitalization. The majority of those who presented symptoms and were clinically diagnosed (but not hospitalized) were children under 10 years old.
Of the infected children, 45 required hospitalization – 38 had serious kidney problems and 21 required dialysis.
Four children died:
In 1993, attorney William "Bill" Marler represented the then 9-year-old Brianne Kiner in litigation against Jack in the Box following an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, securing a $15.6 million settlement.
Marler represented hundreds of other victims of the outbreak in a class-action suit against Jack in the Box, settling for over $50 million. At the time, it was the largest-ever payout related to foodborne illness.
Victims of the Jack in the Box E. coli crisis sued Foodmaker Inc. because they were responsible for supplying the meat for Jack in the Box restaurants. Sheree Zizzi was a spokesperson for Foodmaker Inc. when the lawsuit of Riley Detwiler was settled, she had a positive view on the lawsuit by referring to it as fair and equitable. However, another Foodmaker Inc. official, Robert Nugent was not pleased and viewed the lawsuits as poor settlements with the franchisees as a whole. The main argument made against Foodmaker Inc. in these lawsuits was that they had failed to check the meat supply to deem it safe to eat and that they withheld information for their benefit from the company.
The irresponsibility shown by Jack in the Box was seen when they covered their bases by shifting the blame to others involved, such as Foodmaker Inc and the cooks at the Jack In the Box location. In hopes to improve the company's reputation, the chairman of Jack in the Box, Jack Goodall, publicly announced that the company shared their sympathy and prayers to the families of the victims of the crisis. He added that Jack in the Box would pay the hospital bills for the all of the customers affected with E. coli.
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), addressing a congressional hearing on food safety in 2006, described the outbreak as "a pivotal moment in the history of the beef industry." James Reagan, vice president of Research and Knowledge Management at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), said that the outbreak was "significant to the industry" and "the initiative that moved us further down the road [of food safety] and still drives us today." David Acheson, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Associate Commissioner for Foods, in 2015 told Retro Report that "Jack in the Box was a wakeup call to many, including the regulators. You go in for a hamburger with the kids and you could die. It changed consumers' perceptions and it absolutely changed the behaviors of the industry."
As a direct result of the outbreak: