Apparently the last round of inspections, reevaluations and cleanings weren’t enough to get Chipotle out of the woods after E-Coli outbreaks in multiple locations ravaged the fast food restaurant’s image. Barely two weeks after the company’s CEO issued a heartfelt apology about the outbreaks and more than 100 Boston College students – including members of the basketball team – were affected by an unrelated but still debilitating norovirus, USA Today is reporting that there is a second round of the bacteria spreading through locations and affecting customers. According to their reporting, Chipotle’s difficulties are far from over:
The Centers for Disease Control said Monday that it was looking into an outbreak of a different DNA fingerprint of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli that had sickened five people in North Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma between Nov. 18 and Nov. 26th. In each case, the person had eaten at a Chipotle in the week before they got ill.
In the first outbreak, the illnesses were located mostly in the Pacific Northwest although nine total states were involved. For this round of fun, the outbreak is located in North Dakota, Oklahoma and Kansas. I guess we should applaud Chipotle for offering everyone a fair shake to be crippled by foodborne illnesses, but it’s just another round of bad news for a chain whose stock has taken a huge hit because of the bad press and danger to the public. Funnily enough, all this makes us want to do is head on over and grab a burrito bowl for dinner. They’re good enough to take the risk.
(Via USA Today)
