Seattle attorney Bill Marler, who has filed two lawsuits on behalf of people who have gotten sick in this outbreak, said that just because health department officials haven’t found the cause of the outbreak doesn’t mean they aren’t still blaming Chipotle for making people sick.
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Chipotle is preparing to reopen its stores in the Portland area and in Washington state following an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 40 people.
Health leaders are still working to investigate the cause of an outbreak of illnesses linked to 27 cases of E. coli in Washington state.
“Do I think the food is safe?” “We have found no food with E. coli and there doesn’t appear to be an ongoing risk at this point”.
The Chipotle restaurants that were closed in Oregon and Washington state because of an E. coli scare may soon be re-opening.
“The safety of our customers and integrity of our food supply has always been our highest priority”, said Steve Ells, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle in the statement.
County food safety inspectors will visit each resident to verify the new safeguards are in place, officials said. “The elderly and very young children are more likely to become severely ill from this kind of E. coli infection”.
Chipotle has voluntarily closed all of its restaurants in Oregon and Washington state to help control the outbreak.
The restaurants will reportedly re-open after a deep cleaning, all produce is replaced, and new protocol is put in order for washing produce. If all those conditions are met, the chain could start shipping produce to the restaurants on Tuesday and reopen on Wednesday, he added.
Chris Arnold, a Chipotle spokesman, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Health authorities have failed to resolve the outbreak.
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“A swift and decisive local response is key to containing foodborne illness outbreaks and the effectiveness of these actions is amplified when local and state officials can benefit from federal expertise at the CDC”, she wrote.
