CDC Investigating Another Chipotle E.Coli Outbreak

Chipotle was putting in all the efforts to rebuild the trust among its customers that has somewhere been lost during the E.coli outbreak. There have been no cases of HUS or deaths from this outbreak, although 20 of those who have become ill have been hospitalized.

But the latest E. coli outbreak, which has sickened five people in three states, changed everything.

Five people who ate at Chipotle restaurants in Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma have been sickened with a similar, though slightly different, strain of E.coli, the nasty bacteria blamed for the earlier outbreak.

An estimated 265,000 Shiga toxin-producing E.coli infections occur each year in the USA, majority non-0157, according to the CDC, which uses estimates because not all illnesses are diagnosed and reported.

On December 16, Chipotle CEO Steve Ells and co-CEO Monty Moran talked to CNBC’s May Money; they said: “We can assure you today there is no E. coli in Chipotle”.

In addition to more testing along the supply chain, Chipotle is instituting more high-tech food tracking inside its restaurants and some new procedures, including cutting, washing and testing tomatoes at central commissaries to ensure they are as clean as possible.

“We have indicated before that we expected that we may see additional cases stemming from this, and CDC is now reporting some additional cases”, Arnold said in the email. Chipotle was also forced to close a restaurant in Boston where public health officials say norovirus was discovered after more than 120 Boston College students reported gastrointestinal symptoms.

And some analysts have speculated that customers may abandon Chipotle in favor of rival Qdoba, which is owned by Jack in the Box, as well as other so-called fast casual chains like Panera and Zoe’s Kitchen.

“While we are frustrated by the continued negative news flow regarding the E. coli outbreak, we believe the company has taken the appropriate steps to guard against future incidents”, he wrote. No single food item has been identified as a source of illness. The same month, more than 60 people got sick with salmonella poisoning after eating in one of 22 Chipotle restaurants in Minnesota.

Shares of the popular burrito chain operator fell as much as 5 percent to a 17-month low of $495.76 on Tuesday.

Researchers aren’t certain if this latest spate of illnesses was related to the previous, more far-reaching outbreak that stretched across nine states but was largely concentrated in OR and Washington.