The American fast food chain Wendy's is facing one of the biggest crises in its history, a crisis that is only getting worse every day.
The reason for the failure: contaminated lettuce.
In the past week, it was reported that dozens of people in the east-central US are suffering from severe symptoms caused by E.coli bacteria - bacteria that are found in the feces of animals and humans, and usually pass through meat and vegetables that have come into contact with feces and have not been properly cleaned. Signs of infection include high fever, diarrhea, Pain and general discomfort, and although many recover from it within about a week, the infection can be dangerous and even fatal for children and the elderly.
An investigation carried out on behalf of the CDC, the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that what all patients who contracted the infection have in common is eating Wendy's sandwiches, and the hypothesis is that the source of the infection is romaine lettuce, which is used in the chain's sandwiches.
Currently, the number of patients is at least 75, a figure that has doubled in recent days.
The patients, whose ages range from 6 to 91, live in the states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and health system officials in these states claim that the actual number of patients is much higher than the official CDC figures.
Wendy's, of course, went into absorption alert, and the chain announced that it would remove lettuce from the menu in those countries.
"Although the CDC has not yet determined that the source of the contamination is in a specific food product, we have taken precautions and removed the lettuce from our sandwiches," said the chain, which emphasized that the type of lettuce it uses in sandwiches is different from the type of lettuce found in its salads, so they are still edible.
"As a company, we are committed to maintaining high standards in regards to food safety and quality," the chain clarified.
As expected, the lawsuits were not slow to arrive either.
Ten patients who dined at Wendy's, including a man who had already been hospitalized twice, rushed to file a huge lawsuit against the chain, and the lawyers who represent them estimate that the number of plaintiffs will reach more than 200 in the coming days.
No deaths related to the bacterial outbreak have yet been reported.
Wendy's is considered the third largest hamburger chain in the world, after McDonald's and Burger King, and has nearly 7,000 branches in more than 30 countries.
It operated in Israel in the late 1980s, but its four branches were closed in the early 1990s.
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