The company temporarily shut down 43 restaurants this weekend in OR and Washington after multiple people were found to have been sickened with the bacteria, which health officials believe may have been contracted at Chipotle restaurants.
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Health officials caution people from eating food that contains a strain of the bacteria known as E. coli O157.
Environmental testing of both the restaurants and food, as well as distribution centers, is being conducted by health department officials, the company said. Though they’ve yet to figure out the exact source, Hedberg said produce, including lettuce, tomatoes, fresh salsa or cilantro, is the likely culprit.
People have reported symptoms of E. coli infection in Clackamas and Washington counties in or, and Clark, King, Skagit and Cowlitz counties in Washington.
A microbiologist points out an isolated E. coli growth on an agar plate from a patient specimen at the Washington State Dept. of Health Tuesday, November 3, 2015, in Shoreline, Wash.
The ages of sickened people in OR and Washington over the past few weeks range from 5 to 61, and the young and the elderly are most at risk of becoming severely ill.
The Oregon Health Authority on Tuesday confirmed that 12 cases of E. coli have been discovered around the state, with eight of them linked to Chipotle restaurants with the remainder likely linked, pending test results. The majority of the illnesses were in the Portland area.
The Portland metro area is now at 12 cases, up from three announced Monday, while Washington has seen 25 cases, up from the 19 people who have suffered from food poisoning from the bacterial illness.
“Having three problems in a couple of months means that Chipotle is not paying attention to food safety like it should”, said Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety lawyer who built his national reputation with the 1993 E. coli outbreak at Seattle Jack in the Box restaurants.
Chipotle has now voluntarily closed 43 stores in the area, as state and federal officials attempt to determine the outbreak’s source.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been called in to aid with the investigation.
While the company is scrubbing down its restaurants in the Northwest, doing its own testing of the supply chain and buying new food, they won’t reopen until health officials agree it’s safe. At least one lawsuit has been filed, by a woman who alleges she contracted E. coli after dining at a Vancouver, WA Chipotle on October 21, according to the NY Times. In California, health workers said norovirus sickened almost 100 customers and employees at a Chipotle restaurant in Simi Valley in mid-August. Of those, 23 said they had eaten at Chipotle before getting sick, health officials said.
Chipotle’s shares closed down 0.1 percent at $623.16 on Tuesday.
The number of people affected by an E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle continues to rise.
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“We don’t yet know of a vehicle – what food caused it”, or whether all of the reported infections are even related to each other.
