CDC: new E. coli strain linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill

“Even rational and informed consumers could potentially be given reason to pause when choosing Chipotle over the plethora of fast casual competition in the marketplace”, Ivankoe told investors in his research note.

A prior outbreak that sickened 52 people in nine states and had already been linked to Chipotle restaurants.

Federal health officials said Tuesday that an outbreak of deadly E. coli bacteria linked to Costco rotisserie chicken that sickened 19 people in seven states, mostly in the west, appears to be over. The company’s shares, which have lost a third of their value since mid-October, were down another 4% on Tuesday.

However, the analyst noted that new developments show both the impact of the E. coli program, and more importantly, a management team that seems to be scrambling for answers.

Chipotle shares over the past year.

“Practices that are so far above industry norms today that this we will be the safest place to eat”, Ells said.

Another reported case in Pennsylvania involves a person who did not report eating at a Chipotle in the week leading up to November 14, when the illness started.

Following the outbreak, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has said it is tightening standards to ensure food safety.

“We have indicated before that we expected that we may see additional cases stemming fro this, and CDC is now reporting some additional cases”, the spokesman said.

“While it is never possible to completely eliminate all risk, this program eliminates or mitigates risk to a level near zero, ” he said earlier this month. This investigation is ongoing.

The CDC said that since it does not know whether this new outbreak is related to the larger one it is not including it in its count of the total number of cases. That was followed by a norovirus contagion at a Boston location that sickened more than 140 college students. This time around, the E. coli illnesses were reportedly caused by a different strain.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says the case was a resident from Johnson County who visited the Chipotle in Shawnee around November 23rd.

“The Chipotle foodborne illness case will now be studied by restaurant operators, financial professionals, and PR officials for years if not decades to come”, he said.