McDonald's value meals turn around US sales in third quarter with customers hungry for deals

Value meals helped turn around McDonald's U.S. sales in the third quarter with customers smarting from higher prices all over, but that recovery could be dented in the final months of the year by an E. coli outbreak tied to the company's Quarter Pounder hamburgers.

U.S. same-store sales — or sales at stores open at least a year — rose 0.3% in the July-September period, the company said Tuesday. McDonald's launched a $5 value meal in late June after a disappointing second quarter, and it said the value message resonated with consumers.

The $5 deal was so successful that McDonald's recently extended it to December at most of its U.S. stores.

But last week, a crisis hit. McDonald's pulled Quarter Pounders off the menu at 900 stores after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that the burger's slivered raw onions were the likely cause of E. coli contamination. The outbreak has killed one person and sickened at least 75 others across 13 states.

McDonald's said Sunday it has stopped getting onions from that supplier and expects to put the Quarter Pounder — without onions — back on all of its U.S. menus soon. But it's not yet clear how much the recall hurt demand.