Chipotle’s E.Coli Outbreak Spreads to 3 More States

The E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle had a wider extent than previously thought, health officials from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said in an earlier interview that Chipotle’s limited menu may have made it more hard for investigators to detect the source of the outbreak.

This is a developing story.

Chipotle acted quickly to the original outbreak, shutting the restaurants tied to the infections, reviewing its supply chain procedures, and doing extensive cleanings.

“Chipotle’s enhanced food safety program is the product of a comprehensive reassessment of our food safety practices conducted with IEH Laboratories that included a farm-to-fork assessment of each ingredient we use with an eye toward establishing the highest standards for safety”, the company said in a statement on its Facebook page Friday.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, the fast-food chain forecast that its comparable sales – at stores open for at least a year – will fall by between 8% and 11% in the fourth quarter.

The agency also reported seven additional cases of illness that occurred in October and November.

People usually get sick from Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the bacteria commonly associated with foodborne outbreaks, for two to eight days after swallowing the germ, according to the CDC.

For the final three months of the year, it said it expects sales to be down between 8 to 11 percent at established locations if trends continue. “The investigation is still ongoing to identify common meal items or ingredients causing illness”, according to the CDC update. Additional cases were later reported in California, Minnesota, New York and Ohio.

Shares sank 7% after hours in the stock market today after closing down 0.7% in the regular session.

Chipotle said Friday that store closures and bad publicity linked to the outbreak have slammed its sales.

The company expects its earnings to range between $2.45 and $2.85 per share for the quarter, while analysts had estimated earnings of $4.09 per share. Another feature will be “end-of-shelf-life testing where ingredient samples will be tested to ensure that quality specifications are maintained throughout the shelf life of an ingredient”.