Chipotle faces more woes after a rare strain of bacteria sickens customers

Chipotle is facing more hard times. The problems do not seem to stop for the food chain. After the first E. coli outbreak, there are now reports of a second one. The stock of the coveted chain took a major beating on Monday as the news came that the restaurant chain has been linked to a second outbreak of E. coli. It has been just a week since reports that diners at Chipotle were sickened by a rare strain of bacteria.

There were reports that five people from North Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma were sickened between Nov. 18 and Nov. 26. After further inspection, it was found that in every case the person had eaten at a Chipotle the week before they fell sick. On Monday, The Centers for Disease Control said that it was investigating and is suspecting an outbreak of a different DNA fingerprint of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. It is suspected that this is what sickened all five individuals.

Hard times do not seem to stop for Chipotle

Chipotle is already facing major hard times and is going through major struggles. In recent weeks, there was a report that many people had fallen sick after dining at Chipotle. Of 53 people, 46 had been sickened during an earlier E. coli outbreak. At that time, too, there were reports that they had eaten at Chipotle restaurants before falling ill. The company also faced the music when around 120 Boston College students and others fell sick after eating at Chipotle. This incident was, however, not because of E. coli but due to norovirus, according to the company.

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold has given a clarification on behalf of the company: “We have indicated before that we expected that we may see additional cases stemming from this, and CDC is now reporting some additional cases. Since this issue began, we have completed a comprehensive reassessment of our food safety programs with an eye to finding best practices for each of the ingredients we use. We are now in the process of implementing those programs, including high resolution testing of ingredients, end of shelf-life testing of ingredients, continuous improvement in the supply system based on testing data, and enhanced food safety training for all of our restaurant teams. With all of these programs in place, we are confident that we can achieve a level of food safety risk that is near zero.”

Stocks plummet as food safety issues increase

This news has had no effect on investors, who remain reassured. This Mexican food chain has had the most coveted stocks for the last three years. These recent food safety issues have caused their shares to plummet by 29 percent when compared to their higher point over the past year. On Monday, the stock closed down by 3.5 percent at $522.01.

The earlier incidents have been resurfacing, too. The most recent case was of an individual who fell ill on Nov. 10. Another person in Pennsylvania was found ill during that earlier outbreak on Nov. 14, 2015. It later turned out that the person had not eaten at Chipotle.