The company said it was asked to produce a “broad range of documents” related to a norovirus outbreak in August at a Simi Valley Chipotle restaurant.
Advertisement
Chipotle, upended by repeated cases of food poisoning, plans to shut all its outlets for several hours on that date to hold company-wide meetings on food safety.
“We are hosting a national team meeting to thank our employees for their hard work through this difficult time, discuss some of the food safety changes we are implementing, and answer questions from employees”, Moore told NBC News via email, adding that restaurants will be closed “part of the day February 8”.
Trying to bounce back from three-plus months of E. coli and norovirus outbreaks at its restaurants in several states, Chipotle says it’s closing every store for a few hours next month and then launching a marketing campaign.
Chipotle aspires to be “as in front of food safety as we are in front of sourcing great ingredients, like Food With Integrity, [and] in front of the industry in terms of our people culture”, Ells said.
In his letter, Ells revealed the creation of a comprehensive food safety program that “dramatically reduces risk” on their farms, throughout the supply chain and in the restaurants.
Sales at the chain have continued to tumble, and the company said it was served with the subpoena in December. The California outbreak has resulted in a federal criminal investigation.
The outbreak began some time between October 19 and November 14, which caused 43 locations to close in Washington and Oregon.
Advertisement
A month later, 141 Boston College students were reported to have contracted norovirus after eating at a Chipotle in Brighton, Mass. The chain specifically mentioned this incident in an SEC filing last week, saying that it “worsened the adverse financial and operating impacts” from the E. coli outbreaks.
