Chipotle restaurants in OR, WA to reopen Wednesday

The case count in the investigation of an outbreak of E. coli illnesses O26 related to Chipotle restaurants in Washington and OR includes 31 Washington residents and 18 OR residents.

According to Chipotle’s website, no employees tested positive for E. coli. Washington and OR officials report five Chipotle locations in each state are directly linked to the outbreak.

Food outbreak investigations do not always identify a specific food source as the culprit, because contaminated food is at times consumed before the samples are collected, the Washington health department has said. That information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates about 1 in 7 people in the USA are getting sick from food every year.

Signage hangs from a closed Chipotle restaurant in Portland, Ore., Monday, November 2, 2015.

Health officials reportedly found no evidence of E. coli bacteria at the locations that will be reopening.

Chipotle had earlier seen two separate outbreaks of salmonella and the highly infectious norovirus due to food contamination.

“These things that they’re offering – to be testing before they send the produce out, add the additional rinse step – I think these are all good things that give me a few confidence that they’re minimizing their risk”, he said.

Back at the Chipotle restaurant near Lloyd Center, not everyone was aware about the E. coli outbreak.

Government regulations and restaurant and farm inspections prevent a few people from getting sick, but critics say more must be done to prevent foodborne illness.

“The concern for food safety continues to grow as our global economy creates demand for more food to be shipped internationally”, said Ian Harrison, a partner at Kansas City, Mo.-based insurance brokerage giant Lockton Cos.

“I have no doubt in mind that the civil justice system does change behavior”, said Ryan Osterholm, a lawyer for Pirtzer Olsen in Minneapolis, which has filed lawsuits against Chipotle in the current case and a previous case in Minnesota. “It is our greatest priority to ensure that we go above and beyond to make certain that we find any opportunity to do better in any area of food safety”.

King County health inspectors did a final review of all 17 Chipotle restaurants in the county Tuesday, including at the Northgate Mall location. “We are leaving no stone unturned in terms of finding ways to improve upon our practices”.