Food safety is probably the most important part of running any kind of restaurant or food-related business, and Chipotle has been sloppy making sure that their customers get the best experience possible.
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Chipotle said Friday that store closures and bad publicity linked to the outbreak have slammed its sales.
For its fourth quarter, the company estimates earnings per share in the range of $2.45 to $2.85, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $4.00 per share.
Though the investigations are still going on to find out which specific food is linked to illness, but CDC epidemiologist, who is leading the investigation revealed in an interview that “probably it isn’t a meat” because numerous people who were infected by food poisoning were vegetarians. Forty-seven of the 52 people sickened say they ate at Chipotle before falling ill.
The list of states where E. coli outbreaks have been reported include California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
According to the CDC, most people infected with E. coli develop symptoms three to four days after contact with the germ.
In October, the company had forecast that sales at established locations would be up in the low- to mid-single-digit percentages for 2015.
The majority of the illnesses have been in Oregon and Washington, where initial cases were reported at the end of October.
Chipotle’s E. Coli outbreak has now involved nine states, as the Mexican restaurant continues to be involved in new outbreaks, according to CNN.
Bill Marler of Seattle law firm Marler Clark commented that people should not totally rely on a company that uses only local and fresh ingredients, since it is not immune from food safety issues.
Chipotle said Friday it tested ingredients before, but that it is moving to testing smaller batches and a larger number of samples.
Chris Arnold, a spokesman for Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., said the company’s local produce suppliers may not all be able to meet the new standards.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said in an earlier interview that Chipotle’s limited menu may have made it more hard for investigators to detect the source of the outbreak.
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Coli outbreak is not yet over!
