The Feds Are Now Investigating Chipotle Over That Nasty Norovirus Outbreak

Also in the S.E.C. filing, Chipotle said it anticipates comparable restaurant store sales to be down 14.6% in the fourth quarter.

Chipotle has been facing outbreaks since last few months.

A federal investigation into a one-restaurant outbreak is surprising since there wasn’t a clear interstate element, said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based lawyer who is representing customers saying they were sickened in Simi Valley.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California is conducting the investigation in conjunction with the US Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation. In December, about 140 Chipotle customers in Boston were infected with norovirus, and five more customers in three states were hit with norovirus, which can be spread by contaminated food or water and causes stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting in victims.

“When foodborne illness outbreaks occur, the FDA works closely with other federal and state agencies and other health officials to identify the source, ensure that companies are removing affected foods from the marketplace, and communicate with the public”, the FDA said.

“That was a first for us”, Beach told AP. The company has acknowledged that internal protocols in place since 2008 were not followed in the Simi Valley case. “I’m not sure, quite frankly, they’ll ever have the halo they did prior to the outbreak”, said Bob Derrington, senior restaurant analyst at Telsey Advisory Group.

“They’ve got the FDA all over them, they’ve got the CDC all over them, and now they’ve got the Justice Department all over them”, Pape said.

Chipotle has issued full-page ads apologizing to their customers, but the once thriving company, which served burritos with a side of guilt, is now eating a slice of humble pie. It has also vowed changes to step up food safety at its restaurants.

Copyright © The Associated Press. “These authorized repurchases are in addition to $300 million in repurchase authorizations announced on December 4, 2015, of which $116 million remained available as of December 31, 2015”, Chipotle said in the SEC documents.

In its regulatory filing Wednesday, the company said it could not determine or reasonably predict the amount of any “fines, penalties or further liabilities” it might face in connection with the federal investigation. After that reeling from the impacts of a norovirus outbreak in a Boston restaurant. The U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment, as did Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold.