COLUMBUS, Neb. - Burger King says it plans to launch a newspaper advertising campaign tomorrow to tell consumers it's safe to eat in its fast-food restaurants.
Seven-hundred Burger King restaurants in various parts of the country ran short of hamburgers Friday as a result of concerns about possibly tainted meat.
In the rush to clear its inventory of beef from Hudson Foods, supplies from alternative sources weren't always immediately available. And company officials say they might not reach all restaurants until Saturday.
The company says it's convinced it never bought any tainted beef from Hudson, and that its cooking methods are guaranteed to kill E. coli bacteria. But Burger King's North American president, Paul Clayton, says customers are "absolutely" concerned.
Burger King's 28-state recall spread from Idaho to Alabama, affecting 1650 restaurants, or one-quarter of Burger King's U.S. eateries.
Burger King normally serves 4.6 million Whoppers a day, making it the world's largest-selling burger. But the company lost sales and even suspended a promotion for a new hickory-smoked Whopper.
"Absolutely, customers are concerned," said Paul Clayton, North American president of Miami-based Burger King Corp. "Obviously, our sales are probably not what we'd want them to be."
The hamburger patties were pulled Thursday night and Friday in a scramble from Idaho to Alabama. Only the East and West Coasts, Alaska and Hawaii were left clear. Beef supplies from alternate sources weren't expected to reach all restaurants until today.
Clayton said Burger King pulled the meat as a precaution. It maintains a separate production line at the Hudson Foods plant and its own testing showed no contamination. He said the chain's flame-broiled cooking system guarantees beef is cooked at least to 155 degrees, which would kill E. coli bacteria.
Safety officials say cooking beef so it reaches at least 160 degrees internally will kill E. coli..
The recall began after health officials traced the E. coli illnesses of more than a dozen people in Colorado to patties eaten in early June. At first, 20,000 pounds of beef were affected, but the recall grew as the Agriculture Department found problems with records for tracing meat production.
Hudson Foods agreed Thursday to recall all beef processed at the plant and to shut down the plant until stronger safety recommendations were met. The recalled meat will be returned to Hudson for rendering or burning.
The Agriculture Department has said the contamination did not occur at the plant, but at one of Hudson's suppliers. It was not known, however, which supplier had sent the tainted beef to the plant.
"You can't have Burger King without burgers," said David Clouse, who left after learning there were no burgers at a restaurant in Arapahoe County, Colo. "It's just not the same."
"Why walk in and order food when you've heard bad reports about the meat?" asked Virginia Betts as she ordered breakfast at a Burger King in Omaha. "In the back of your mind, you're always wondering, `Have they sent all the bad meat back?'"
But at a Burger King in Cincinnati late Friday, Joel Bishop wolfed down a double Whopper.
"I ate apples during the Alar scare, too," he said. "This country overreacts to everything. The sky is always falling."
Burger Kings that carried Hudson beef are in: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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