by Linda L Kinyon

Created on: July 08, 2008   Last Updated: December 07, 2011

The most memorable scandal involving the Jack In The Box restaurant food chain began in January of 1993 when The Washington State Department of Health began receiving phone calls regarding a cluster of children that were suffering from hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS is secondary to E. coli and was being treated in a Seattle area hospital where there had been a sudden increase in Emergency Room visits with children suffering from bloody diarrhea.

In addition to the bloody diarrhea, nearly all of the patients had one other thing in common. Nearly all of the emergency room patients had recently eaten hamburgers from Jack in the Box restaurants. The State Washington Department of Health began an immediate investigation of the outbreak.

Over the course of the investigation the outbreak of E. coli was isolated from 11 lots of meat patties that were produced from November of 1992. Jack in the Box immediately issued a recall of all of the ground beef patties produced during the 2 day time span that was in question. Approximately 20 percent of the ground beef implicated was recovered through the recall.

The ground beef in question had also been distributed to Jack in the Box restaurants in Idaho, California and Nevada. All of the states began to investigate reported cases of bloody diarrhea from November of 1992 through the end of February of 1993. The results were staggering.

Washington state had the highest incidences with 602 reported cases of bloody diarrhea. 477 Washingtonians were confirmed to have E. coli. 144 people were hospitalized and 3 people died.

Idaho reported 14 confirmed cases of E. coli. 4 people were hospitalized and one developed HUS.

California reported 6 confirmed cases of E. coli and 34 patients met the outbreak definition becoming ill during the dates of November 15, 1992 through January 31, 1993. 14 people were hospitalized and 7 developed HUS. One child died.

Nevada reported only 1 confirmed case while 58 other patients met the criteria of the outbreak of E. coli. 9 people were hospitalized and 3 developed HUS.
Ultimately, 73 of the Jack in the Box restaurants were identified as being part of the outbreak. The source of the outbreak was traced back to 5 possible slaughter plants in the United States and one possible slaughter plant in Canada. No specific slaughter plant was ever identified as the definite source.

In the next 18 months sales at Jack in the Box decreased to the tune of approximately $160 million in lost revenues. Hundreds of lawsuits flooded in from ill customers and stockholders followed filing suit against the company for court costs and lost sales due to the adverse publicity.

The FDA raised the recommended internal temperature of cooked hamburgers to 155 Fahrenheit and all employees were instructed on how to test the internal temperature of the cooked hamburger patties.

The most severely injured victims were younger children including the 4 who ultimately lost their lives. William Marler represented a nine-year-old Seattle girl who recovered after suffering kidney failure and other complications, including being in a coma for 42 days, and won a $15.6 million settlement from the company. He also represented over 100 other victims of the outbreak in claims against Jack in the Box. Their claims were resolved for undisclosed amounts.

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