In a statement, Ells said that the company is “deeply sorry” about those loyal people who eat at the chain in recent weeks and fell ill.
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The Mexican-style restaurant closed Thursday for repeated food-safety violations. The school said that 12 of those students did not eat at the restaurant.
Officials have been closely monitoring Chipotle restaurants since October when 43 stores in Washington and OR voluntarily closed after they were linked to an E. coli outbreak. The most recent case happened November 13. But Chipotle says whatever the likely culprit was is out of its restaurants. All but seven are Boston College students.
The recently closed location, according to the Seattle Health Department, was closed after red violations were observed on three separate days.
The Seattle Health Department said in a blog post that all Seattle-based Chipotle restaurants have been under close watch after they reopened following the E.coli outbreak.
Officials said an employee at the restaurant was sick during a shift last week and might have caused the outbreak of norovirus, which is very contagious and causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. “We are looking into a cause of that and will address it”, a spokesman said in an email.
In an interview with Today show, Ells said it was painful to see people felling ill after eating at Chipotle.
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As for just what Ells means by “doing a lot to rectify” the situation, he explained that the company is now implementing new food safety and testing practices that will put it “10 to 15 years ahead of industry” standards.
