Coli Outbreak Still Not Found

Chipotle Mexican Grill will reopen all 43 restaurants the chain voluntarily closed in its Seattle and Portland, Ore., markets as a result of an E. coli incident that sickened a few customers who had eaten at locations in the area, the company said in a release.

Seattle attorney Bill Marler, who has filed two lawsuits on behalf of people who have gotten sick in this outbreak, said that just because health department officials haven’t found the cause of the outbreak doesn’t mean they aren’t still blaming Chipotle for making people sick.

The company said none of its employees at these restaurants had E.coli. Menu items identified as high risk will be tested before being sent to restaurants, and all fresh produce will be carefully rinsed and sanitized. A county health official will continue to conduct inspection son the sites.

But they didn’t find it. That sometimes happens in food poisoning investigations. “If there are any opportunities for us to do better in any facet of our sourcing or food handling – from the farms to our restaurants – we will find them”.

The type of E. coli in this outbreak is a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.

Jonathan Modie, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority, said food-borne illnesses are not easy to track to the source of the outbreak.

In the letter, Murray expressed appreciation for the CDC’s efforts to date to support state and local health officials’ response to the outbreak, and called for continued support to help ensure Washington state families are safe as officials continue to combat the outbreak.

Replacing all ingredients in the closed restaurants.

“What they’re doing is they’re investigating an outbreak that occured weeks before they start their investigation so they’re looking at food products that were not the products that people were eating”, he said.

“I don’t know if we’re ready to raise the mission accomplished banner yet”, Modie said.

The Denver company has 1,755 Chipotle restaurants across the United States, seven in Canada, six in England, three in France and one in Germany.

County food safety inspectors will visit each resident to verify the new safeguards are in place, officials said.