Chipotle has said the OR and Washington restaurants will open “in the coming days”.
Advertisement
Bill Marler, an attorney who’s representing some of those who fell ill in a lawsuit, said health officials can’t figure out a source of most outbreaks in restaurants. The company says it has received results of 900 tests for E. coli on samples form restaurant equipment and surfaces and all of them were negative.
Chipotle restaurants in Washington and OR might reopen this week after new E. coli testing.
The outbreak was traced to 11 Chipotle restaurants in OR and Washington, but the company closed 43 locations in its Seattle and Portland markets as a precaution. Health officials said the findings are not unusual, because sometimes the contaminated foods are consumed or thrown out before samples are taken. The incubation period for E. coli is typically three to four days after exposure, but may be as short as one day or as long as 10 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chipotle had earlier seen two separate outbreaks of salmonella and the highly infectious norovirus due to food contamination. Chipotle shuttered the locations in those areas more than a week ago as authorities investigated the E. coli outbreak.
The company’s pacific northwest restaurants could reopen later this week.
Last week the chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle, Steve Ells, said in a statement, “The safety of our customers and integrity of our food supply has always been our highest priority”.
Up to Monday’s close, Chipotle’s shares had fallen almost 5 percent since the company announced the closure of restaurants.
Marler said it’s obvious that Chipotle has issues with food safety.
“We have also retained two of the nation’s best food-safety scientists to work with us to assess practices and find additional areas for improvement”, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said.
In updates yesterday investigators said 1 more illness has been reported, edging the outbreak total to 42.
Most reports of potential food-related illnesses pose no ongoing threat, so local health departments do not report them to the public, according to Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Seattle and King County Public Health.
Advertisement
“What you really need in order for the finger to be pointed at the source is for people to eat different things: People who eat A get sick and people eat B do not”, Schaffner explained to ABC News.
