Chipotle Restaurants to Temporarily Close for Safety Meeting

In addition to the ongoing, well-publicized, nine-state E. coli o26 outbreak that sickened 53 people in October and early November, another cluster of five illnesses in three states caused by a different strain of E. coli O26 occurred in late November.

Embattled fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) will close all of its eateries nationwide for a few hours during the morning of February 8 for an all-staff meeting on food safety.

Last year, Chipotle temporarily closed all of its Seattle and Portland restaurants in order to sanitize and inspect their ingredient stores after what health officials said was an outbreak of E.coli there.

“We are hosting a national team meeting to thank our employees for their hard work through this difficult time, discuss some of the food safety changes we are implementing, and answer questions from employees”, Chris Arnold, a Chipotle spokesman, said in an email. Chipotle now faces lawsuits from customers and investors, not to mention a criminal investigation regarding the norovirus outbreak in California.

Federal officials haven’t confirmed if the E.coli outbreak is over. As of September, Chipotle has 1,906 restaurants worldwide, 1,895 of which are in the U.S.

The company has projected an 8 percent drop in sales for the fourth quarter.

Chipotle executives announced during an investment conference in Florida on Wednesday that the chain is committed to taking the proper measures towards reducing a further risk of food poisoning to “near zero” as they begin “inviting customers back” in February through enhanced marketing efforts and direct mail invitations, according to Fox News. The company has also changed some suppliers and food preparation procedures.

Still, Ells said, “I don’t think we’ll ever be finished”. “We did a really comprehensive review of food safety practices from farm to restaurants”.