Fourteen of those sickened were hospitalized.
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday in an update that 23 isolates from sick patients have now been uploaded to PulseNet, the national subtyping network. That means you have close to a 15 percent chance of catching a foodborne illness every single year. Chipotle said it believes a meal served on October 24 was linked to the E. coli outbreak.
There are things people can do to ward off foodborne illnesses: Wash your hands before making or eating food, avoid undercooked hamburger or raw shellfish, be careful about cross-contamination of raw meat, wash produce thoroughly, and steer clear of unpasteurized milk or juice.
Many of these illnesses involve people eating at home, but health experts say even restaurant-related outbreaks are fairly common.
Conducting additional deep cleaning and sanitization in all its restaurants nationwide. Dr. Scott Lindquist, Washington’s epidemiologist for communicable disease said that after this, Chipotle restaurant has left no stone un-turned to ensure safety.
James Rushing, a manager of worldwide food safety training programs at the University of Maryland, College Park, said that while it is hard to assign blame in E. coli outbreaks, restaurants are responsible for proper training.
Chipotle said in a statement the restaurants would brig in new ingredients come in and that testing will be done on produce, meat and dairy before restaurants are restocked. 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. County food safety inspectors in both states will be checking that each individual store has adhered to these mandates before reopening, and each location must pass a health department inspection.
Immediately closing 43 restaurants in OR and Washington out of an abundance of caution, although the incident was limited to 11 restaurants.
The Oregon Health Authority tested dozens of samples.
People typically start to show symptoms of E. coli about three to four days after being exposed, but this can take as long as 10 days. Eleven of the restaurants had ties to the outbreak.
Lindquist said that he expects Chipotle will reopen the 43 restaurants it closed in Washington and OR by Wednesday OR Thursday. All of them ate at a Chipotle in Washington or OR in the week before becoming ill.
No cause has been established between this issue and any ingredient. USA Today reported that the Oregon Health Authority Officials reckon that the Chipotle customers were most likely sickened by contaminated produce.
No Chipotle employees are among the confirmed cases.
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“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.
