E. Coli Outbreak Linked to Chipotle Expands Into Maryland, Other States

Chipotle said it has been tightening its food safety procedures.

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

In regulatory filings on Friday, Chipotle said it expects fourth quarter earnings per share of $2.45 to $2.85, sharply below original expectations of $4.06. Of the three most recent illnesses reported in November, only one ill person reported eating at Chipotle in the week before their illness began on November 10, said the CDC. Nine out of 10 people interviewed reported eating at a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in the week before their illness started.

People usually get sick from Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the bacteria commonly associated with food-borne 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 majority of the illnesses reported are in the states of Washington and Oregon.

Two of the newly reported illnesses started in October, and five started in November, suggesting the outbreak was not as short-lived as previously thought.

Bill Marler of Seattle law firm Marler Clark commented that people should not totally rely on a company that uses only local and fresh ingredients, since it is not immune from food safety issues.

This means that there could be changes in Chipotle’s produce suppliers, who may not be able to meet the new standards. “Through this high resolution testing program, we are making the haystacks smaller by working with smaller lots”, the company said. Its shares have dropped 25 percent since mid-October.

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.

When looking at the charts for Chipotle Mexican Grill, the stock has been in a strong downtrend ever since reports of the E.Coli breakout surfaced.