Best-selling fantasy and thriller author Eric Van Lustbader, of Jason Bourne fame, took to Twitter Thursday, saying that his editor became sick after eating at Chipotle.
Advertisement
Some have accused Van Lustbader of trying to harm Chipotle’s image and intentionally lower its stock, claims which he has denied.
“I still think the stock is a short and I do think that every incremental data point that comes out is going to delay the recovery trajectory”, Setyan concluded.
The illness is at this time unconfirmed, with no official reports of Chipotle-related illnesses.
In response, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said that the company had not received any current reports of illness in New York City from customers or health departments, Reuters reported.
Van Lustbader later elaborated that his editor was sent to the emergency room and kept there for seven hours, suffering from food poisoning from unsanitary food handling practices.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also said that there were no reports of confirmed cases this year of foodborne illness associated with Chipotle restaurants in the city.
While regulators gave Chipotle an all clear in February of this year, the chain has had a hard time convincing customers to return. Chipotle saw a similar drop in sales (23.4 percent) earlier this year when a 2015 E. coli outbreak caused more than 50 people across the U.S. to be sick. The reaction shows just how sensitive Chipotle now is to food safety concerns.
Advertisement
In an attempt to bring customers back to the chain, Chipotle has spent million on promotions, hoping the draw of free burritos could convince Americans that the chain is once again safe to eat.
