Chipotle to pause on February 8

Chipotle Mexican Grill will temporarily close all of its restaurants for several hours February 8 to discuss new changes in the company’s food safety procedures.

Chipotle will close all of its restaurants February 8 – to hold staff meetings about food safety.

The CDC has not yet pinpointed a cause for the contagions, though Chipotle plans on unveiling a marketing campaign next month to win customers back into the fold of their tortillas.

Another outbreak started in October in OR and Washington and spread to seven other states, sickening more than 45 people by mid-November.

Chipotle indicated last week that the federal authorities were pursuing a criminal case.

As the New York Times reports, the latest customer who claims he got E. Coli after eating at one of their Seattle locations in July has recently sued the restaurant chain.

This video includes images from Getty Images. A norovirus episode in Boston last month sickened more than 120 college students.

Chipotle will use the time for a company-wide meeting to discuss food safety in the wake of a bout of food-borne illness issues at locations across the country, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported.

Although CEO Steve Ells has made efforts to regain the public’s trust, sales are down by nearly 40 percent. The company said it received a grand jury subpoena related to a norovirus outbreak that sickened 234 people in Simi Valley, California, in August. That sense of freshly prepared ingredients has been one of Chipotle’s attractions as it has sought to distinguish itself from traditional fast-food chains.

To deal with the matter, the company has employed a food safety expert, altered its food handling practices and has begun testing produce prior to their shipment to stores. Chipotle stock is down more than a third since the outbreaks.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Chipotle stores.