Boston College: More Than 140 Students Ill From Norovirus Linked to Chipotle

Citigroup Inc. restated a “buy” rating on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th.

Millennials everywhere are freaking out over Chipotle’s most recent E. coli outbreak, and a new report shows that another possible food poisoning incident has hit a franchise in Boston, with at least 120 people coming down with something due to the food ordered at the Mexican chain.

Chipotle is developing new and better food safety standards that are above the industry norm.

This week students from Boston College, including members of the men’s basketball team, reported feeling sick after eating at the chain this past weekend. An additional 12 who did not eat at Chipotle reported similar symptoms.

Steve Ells said the company is cleaning the Cleveland Circle restaurant where customers, many of them Boston College students, are believed to have been exposed to norovirus.

Ells repeated the company’s pledge to tighten food safety procedures to ensure such incidents do not happen again. Arnold said Chipotle has sent senior managers to its restaurants to oversee training, and it is trying to prevent E. coli by testing suppliers.

Ells said that the E. coli outbreak has forced the company to review how its ingredients are being handled. It commonly spreads through contaminated food and is responsible for yearly outbreaks in the US that affect an average of 20 million people.

When asked whether Chipotle can recover financially from the toll the outbreaks have taken, Ells said “certainly” but that his focus now is on “the safety and quality of our ingredients”. All came back negative for E. coli.

However, the stock is trending higher as aforementioned, after Mr. Ellison apologized to all the patrons who were impacted from the disease after having meals at the restaurant chain.

Officials said an employee at the restaurant was sick during a shift last week and may have caused the outbreak of norovirus, which is very contagious and causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Chipotle’s stock slid more than 7 per cent in after-market trading. “When we re-open, the [ Boston Chipotle ] will be completely sanitized, and every single employee will have been tested and assured that they do not have norovirus”.

Now keep in mind, when Chipotle management provided this dismal guidance, marking the first time since its 2006 IPO that sales will decline year-over-year, the norovirus outbreak Boston College was not considered.

Chipotle shares fell $8.75, or 1.6 percent, to $543 in afternoon trading Tuesday.

Kennedy said it would be easy for consumers to get the message that Chipotle is spending a lot of money on its positioning about things like using no genetically modified ingredients, “but too bad they weren’t paying attention to basics like food safety”, she said.