Bad news for those of you planning to have a pleasant dinner at Chipotle or Starbucks anytime this weekend. The Chipotle E.Coli outbreak (which started in October and is still not under control) has reached three new states, bringing the count up from six states to nine. And the burrito eatery is not on its own: according to Delish, Starbucks is now recalling paninis due to fear that the vegetables may be infected (and for all of you laughing because you never visit Chipotle or Starbucks, Costco’s affected too, FYI.)
Let’s start with Chipotle: The Associated Press reports that the CDC has confirmed more cases of people becoming ill from e.coli in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania. 52 people have reported being ill and 47 of those people, the AP points out, said they’d eaten at Chipotle. This is not good news for the restaurant, which has now had to deal with store closures, snarky yelpers and falling stock prices. Not to mention the inevitable lawsuits that will come once everyone figures out what’s causing the outbreak (or everyone in America turns into zombies). Officials thought that they’d be able to stop the outbreak quickly, but not even store closures and deep cleans seem to have done the trick.
Unfortunately, the spread of e.coli doesn’t stop there: Starbucks and Costco have both reported that a blend of celery and onions they use in their food may have been tainted. 19 people have gotten sick from eating the vegetables in Costco’s chicken salad and Starbucks isn’t willing to take any chances that their customers will also fall ill due to diseased veggies.
Starbucks used the same celery for its Holiday Turkey and Stuffing Paninis, which are now being recalled “out of an abundance of caution,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a news release. According to the FDA, the recall affects paninis sold in California, Oregon, and Nevada between November 20 and November 28. That affects 1,347 different Starbucks locations, but Bloomberg reports that there have been no reports of illness from eating the sandwiches.
Great, but you know, be careful out there when you’re deciding where to go for lunch. Maybe eat a couple of pop-tarts at home or celebrate National Cookie Day by spending the entire weekend eating nothing but cookies that have absolutely no vegetables in them. The good news, of course, is that e.coli is treatable and also that no one has been critically or fatally injured.
