What should be an otherwise routine and amazing week full of totally free burrito-giveaways and the much-hyped debut of Queso, has just taken a adverse turn to Chipotle. Health Officials in Loudoun County, Virginia claim that 135 customers have fallen ill after eating in one of the burrito chain’s restaurants in the Washington, DC, suburbs, within an episode like food-borne illness outbreaks that contaminated scores of consumers in 2015.
The particular restaurant place in Sterling, Virginia had been shuttered briefly a week following the company discovered that several customers had become ill after ingestion. But what surfaced as 13 customers experiencing symptoms like stomach pain has become something. Now, according to health officials, 135 patrons have confessed symptoms, and two have tested positive for norovirus.
“Two ill patrons also have tested positive to the exact same strain of norovirus. According to symptoms reported and such preliminary laboratory results, the cause of the outbreak is believed to be norovirus, although the particular supply of the norovirus hasn’t yet been identified,” stated Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department. The restaurant in question has been reopened Wednesday following a thorough cleanup, and officials have not been alerted to some further instances of illness in the place.
Leadership is not placing blame on the food supply of the company, but rather on insufficient wellness prep at the restaurant. Talking during a quarterly earnings forecast with investors on Tuesday, ” Mark Crumpacker, Chief Marketing and Development Officer in Chipotle, stated: “We conducted a thorough investigation and it seems that a person in the restaurant leadership didn’t stick to our food security protocol. We think somebody worked while sick.”
The company issues with food security were addressed further with CEO Steve Ells resulting in the seminar with opening comments, during the telephone. “The food security episodes of 2015 revealed that our food security program needed to be powerful,” he said. “It became apparent that we were focused too much on constructing cultures that didn’t drive the results we had been anticipating.”
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