The subpoena, served in December, is part of an investigation by the u-s food and drug administration’s office of criminal investigations.
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“The subpoena requires us to produce a broad range of documents related to a Chipotle restaurant in Simi Valley, Calif., that experienced an isolated norovirus incident during August 2015”, according to the SEC filing.
Chipotle Mexican Grill has been given a federal subpoena last month as part of criminal investigation linked to an outbreak at a restaurant of the company. The bacteria typically live in the intestines of animals and people, but some strains can cause illness or even death.
In Chipotle’s months-long fall from grace, the news that America’s once beloved fast-casual restaurant now faces a federal criminal investigation and even worse-than-expected fourth-quarter sales sounds like a swan song.
An investigation is being led by US prosecutors and the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations to determine how Chipotle handled the outbreak, according to the report.
As the number of Chipotle customers who have fallen ill continued to rise, Chipotle sales continued to fall.
Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer representing plaintiffs in cases involving the California norovirus outbreak and others involving food contamination, said the federal inquiry was unusual.
The Chipotle restaurant chain is under investigation for a norovirus outbreak at one store, Reuters reported Wednesday. Like In-N-Out, however, Chipotle doesn’t franchise out any of its locations; they’re all company-owned.
The E. coli outbreak was followed by a separate norovirus outbreak at a Chipotle store in Boston. Chipotle’s management has said that they will fully cooperate with the joint investigation. It’s already involved in a USA government immigration investigation that started in 2010 and caused the company to fire hundreds of workers.
Chipotle has been reeling ever since news of its infected food products first emerged.
Shares of the burrito chain fell more than 5 percent to $424.95, their lowest in more than two years, as the Denver-based company grapples with a wave of norovirus and E. coli outbreaks that have sickened customers and battered sales.
“They didn’t tell us what their intentions were”, he said.
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Beach also noted that complaints were brought forth to the attention of Chipotle about the illnesses on Tuesday, Aug. 18, and shut down the restaurant promptly but failed to notify the county about the incident until the restaurant was reopened.
