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Every Chipotle Will Close on February 8 for Food Safety Meeting

The company said it received a grand jury subpoena related to a norovirus outbreak that sickened 234 people in Simi Valley, California, in August.

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Chipotle is shutting down all its stores nationwide for a few hours next month to hold staff meetings about food safety.

The Chicago Tribune reports that on February 8, the restaurants will close their doors and meet to discuss a range of issues.

The meeting will discuss food-safety changes, allow employees to ask questions and thank them for their “hard work during this difficult time”, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said in an email.

Customers have posted photos of Chipotle meals and joked about getting infected with E, coli or norovirus.

After multiple food poisoning outbreaks, the restaurant’s stock price drastically plunged to more than a third over the last three months.

After the nine-state E. coli outbreak, Chipotle hired IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group of Lake Forest Park, Wa.

But CEO Steve Ells said earlier this week that he was “hopeful” the Centers for Disease Control would soon declare that the outbreaks were over.

Following the conference, on Thursday, many analysts reiterate and upgraded stock rating, which reflects the analysts are hopeful that the corporation will successfully remove the risk of food-borne illness.

The company also announced on Wednesday that it will launch a new marketing campaign in February; the outbreak caused sales to plummet 30 percent in December.

“I’m confident we’ll recover from this and win back our customers”, he reportedly said.

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Shares of the E.coli and salmonella stricken Chipotle Mexican Grill ( CMG ) are trading up over 4.5% this afternoon. As of September, Chipotle has 1,906 restaurants worldwide, 1,895 of which are in the U.S.

Prepare yourself for a day with no Chipotles