Customers head to Chipotle as outlets reopen in Northwest

Ten of them were hospitalized.

A worker cleans a food preparation area in a still-closed Chipotle restaurant Monday, November 9, 2015, … State health officials have updated their data to show the outbreak affected people who ate at six different restaurants in the Portland, Oregon, area.

Foodborne illnesses like the E. coli outbreak linked to Northwest Chipotle restaurants are more common than the public realizes. And most instances never make the news. “Incubation period for E. coli is typically three to four days after exposure, but may be as short as one day or as long as 10 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”. In other words, 1 in every 7 people in the US get sick from food each year.

Many of these illnesses involve people eating at home, but health experts say even restaurant-related outbreaks are fairly common.

Washing your hands before cooking or eating, avoiding undercooked hamburger or raw shellfish, and staying away from unpasteurized milk or juice could prevent you from getting sick by food.

Most reports of potential food-related illnesses pose no continuing risk to the public, so local health departments do not publicize them, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County Public Health.

Up to Monday’s close, Chipotle’s shares had fallen almost 5 percent since the company announced the closure of restaurants.

The illnesses were traced to 11 restaurants in the region, but the company closed 43 at the end of October as a precaution. Chipotle did its own testing and said it did not find any food contaminated by E. coli.

Chipotle agreed to meet criteria set by OR officials as a prerequisite for reopening restaurants including pretesting “selected high-risk” foods before they are sent to individual restaurants and instituting a policy that “all fresh produce will be carefully rinsed and sanitized”.

He said he wasn’t concerned about food safety after the E. coli outbreak because – like health officials said earlier this week – Chipotle was probably the safest restaurant in town after all the cleaning and restocking.

The restaurant chain reportedly stated that it is working with health officials to improve food handling processes and is focusing on audits and inspections in all of its restaurants.