Moreover, the restaurant chain needs to go through a series of sanitization procedures before opening restaurants.
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“Unfortunately, that’s pretty normal”, Kaisner said.
Health officials said the findings are not unusual, because sometimes the contaminated foods are consumed or thrown out before samples are taken.
Rather, it’s to the contrary, they said.
Officials with the Denver-based chain said all domestic restaurants throughout the 1,900-unit system have been deep-cleaned and sanitized. “We have found no food with E. coli and there doesn’t appear to be an ongoing risk at this point”.
The company said it has replaced all ingredients in the 43 restaurants in its Portland, Ore., and Seattle markets. The company has retained two food safety scientists to help assess and improve its food safety standards. “And, we’ve seen a few companies just totally disappear when they did not take an immediate positive stance in their safety programs”.
Investors need to closely monitor the situation in order to make sure that Chipotle continues providing an adequate response to both customers and authorities. But there was also a fourth in Seattle that put two people in the hospital.
OR health officials added one new case to the list on Friday, bringing the total to 13. “And that’s what drives me insane”. Negative publicity and customer concern are more important considerations, but chances are the company will be able to regain consumer trust over time.
Health officials say they haven’t determined a cause of the outbreak that started last month.
The type of E. coli in this outbreak is a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC O26).
There are about 48 million cases of food borne disease every year in the United States, sending about 105,000 people to the hospital and resulting in 2,000 deaths.
Chipotle did its own testing, and those results also came back negative.
Piper Jaffray analyst Nicole Miller Regan had estimated on November 2 that the restaurant closures could hit Q4 earnings by about 22 cents per share, but that assumed the stores would remain closed for the duration of the quarter. Meanwhile inside, a uniformed crew wiped down countertops and equipment.
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In Washington, the most recent person sickened by E. coli reported eating at Chipotle on October 24.
