Chipotle closing all stores February 8th for food safety training, Report

Outlining the plan during a Wednesday investor conference in Florida, company executives said the staff meeting would also include a discussion of new food-safety measures Chipotle has implemented and a question-and-answer session with employees.

Following a string of E. Coli, norovirus and salmonella outbreaks in December, Mexican fast food chain Chipotle has faced an uphill battle to improve its tarnished image as a purveyor of healthier-than-most-others food.

The company has been plagued with food-borne illness outbreaks.

The string of food scares has taken its toll on Chipotle’s bottom line.

Nevertheless, Chipotle has not seen the last of the barrage of lawsuits against the company.

Chipotle’s same-store sales dropped by 14.6 percent in the last quarter.

The company’s stock rose on Friday, after what has been a precipitous, months-long decline.

Chipotle co-CEO Monty Moran added, “The morale in our stores is actually very, very high”.

Ells noted the company’s dedication to food quality in the past, and added that he was confident the company would win back customers and emerge as a stronger company.

The announcement follows what has been a hard time for Chipotle.

The Chicago-based company has more than 1,900 restaurants, including 17 outside the U.S.

Almost three months have passed since Chipotle’s initial outbreak shut down locations in OR and Washington.

The meeting comes months after an E. coli outbreak that sickened 52 people and a norovirus outbreak that sickened about 140 people at a single Chipotle restaurant in Boston, according to the company.

Dealing with a few big suppliers is in theory easier with monitoring the safety standards of many local ones, although it’s not clear if the source of the food poisoning originated from a local farm.

By Dec. 21, 53 people in nine states had been infected with the outbreak E. Coli strain.