Although Government regulations on restaurants and farms prevent most people from getting sick, experts say there is more that U.S. Government could do to eradicate these outbreaks, such as better testing on farms and warehouses.
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Chipotle is set to reopen its restaurants this week after the E. coli outbreak got almost 45 people infected.
The spokesperson said Chipotle will review its distributors and test ingredients before it ever makes it to the restaurant. The outbreak hospitalized more than a dozen people.
A closed sign greets visitors at the Issaquah Commons Chipotle November 2. “When Portland health officials encouraged closure, Chipotle responded immediately and closed all 43 restaurants in Washington and OR”.
Chipotle says it’s reopening the 43 restaurants it closed in the Pacific Northwest amid an E. coli outbreak that has sickened about 40 people.
The restaurant chain was allowed to reopen its Northwest outlets after completing a thorough cleaning, replacing all the fresh food and adopting a few new protocols for washing fresh produce.
“We offer our most honest apologies to customers who have been affected by this incident”.
“We have also retained two of the nation’s best food-safety scientists to work with us to assess practices and find additional areas for improvement”, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said.
That was good news to Eddie Black, 60, who said he usually eats at Chipotle two or three times a week.
“Testing food, restaurant surfaces and equipment in its restaurants to date, Chipotle has received almost 900 test results, all of which showed no E. coli”, according to a statement posted November 10 on the company’s website.
The criteria include pretesting “selected high-risk” foods before they are sent to individual restaurants and a requirement that “all fresh produce will be carefully rinsed and sanitized”.
He noted that the restaurant had a steady stream of customers but not the lines he usually sees at lunchtime on a weekday.
Lawsuits will force the company to answer questions such as whether it visited the farms where its produce was grown and if it gets outside help with food quality and safety, said Ryan Osterholm, a lawyer for Pirtzer Olsen in Minneapolis, which has sued Chipotle in the current case and in a previous one in Minnesota.
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“I’ve been craving Chipotle for the last week and a half”, Walter said.
