Government Investigates Chipotle Norovirus Outbreak

A closed Chipotle restaurant is shown, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, in Federal Way, Wash.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations have been investigating the case.

The company said in a regulatory filing it was asked to produce a broad range of documents tied to a norovirus outbreak this summer at its restaurant in Simi Valley, California, but declined to provide further details.

The Denver company has been reeling since an E. coli outbreak linked to its restaurants.

The company predicted a 14.6 percent drop in sales in the last quarter of 2015, saying that between $14 million and $16 million will be spent in response to the various contamination issues.

Chipotle’s reputation – and sales – fell further the week of December 21, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was investigating five new cases of E. coli reported in November.

County officials were also questioned in October by US authorities, who asked “very general questions about the case”, Beach said.

According to a county inspection report, the area manager for Chipotle said the company got its first customer complaint about an illness on August 20.

Chipotle is the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Chipotle has acknowledged it saw sales plunge by 30 percent last month in the aftermath of the outbreaks.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, citing a policy not to comment on ongoing criminal investigations.

Chipotle has been trying to bounce back from a norovirus spread that rocked more than a handful of their stores across the U.S. The outbreak has affected over 200 people, with one of its biggest impacts occurring in Boston.

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said in an email that the company does not discuss pending legal actions as a matter of policy, but that it would cooperate fully in the investigation.

“Following this announcement and related national media attention, our comparable restaurant sales trended down to minus 37 percent”, the company said. He said he was not aware of any activities by Chipotle that might have led to a criminal investigation.

The cause of the E. coli outbreak has not yet been identified… More than 150 people were sickened in that outbreak. Later in the month, the C.D.C. announced an additional Chipotle-related illness.

The company also unveiled a series of changes to be made to its cooking methods in order to increase safety.