Chipotle takes a one day hiatus

Ever since the E. coli, Salmonella and norovirus breakout, Chipotle’s troubles refuse to resolve. The burrito chain has decided to resolve. In one of the greatest moves ever, Chipotle will close 2,000 of its restaurants for a day to train employees on food safety. This one day hiatus is not just to ensure food security but also signifies that how it is important for restaurants to repair trust with customers and stay true to its basics.

Chipotle aims is win back the public favor

Chipotle spokesperson said in an e-mail,  “We are hosting a national team meeting to thank our employees for their hard work through this difficult time, discuss some of the food safety changes we are implementing, and answer questions from employees”. Other than this, to win back the public favor, Chipotle has upped the amount of free food that would be given to the customers. The restaurant chain wants o win back the public favor ASAP. But that would not be so easy for Chipotle.

“Training has got to be an ongoing process. There’s no way of absolutely guaranteeing [a restaurant] won’t have any incidence of food borne disease. Getting one person sick every so often is bad enough. You want to make it a rare event. Certainly when you have four outbreaks traced back to a single chain of restaurants, it’s not a rare event. With the E. coli [infections] there’s a strong possibility that the outbreaks could have been due to a contaminated ingredient”, said Robert Buchanan, a University of Maryland, College Park professor and director of the college’s Center for Food Safety and Security Systems.

To deal with the germs and bacteria is important

Buchanan further explains the bacteria E. coli. “E. Coli is a gut bacteria that lives in mammals’ intestines and food borne infections are usually linked back to an animal source, either domestic or wild, but has also been traced to humans. To cause illness, the bacteria contaminates the food — meat, dairy, or produce — but isn’t inactivated through cooking”, said Buchanan. He said that norovirus comes from humans only. It is found in vomit or fecal matter. “I’m assuming no one is vomiting on the food being served. The norovirus can be airborne but usually after someone vomits in the area. It survives on surfaces, skin, clothing, etc”, joked Buchanan.

Chipotle’s E. coli outbreaks are being investigated by FDA and CDC. The Justice Department has launched a probe into the norovirus cases that infected 200 customers in Simi Valley, California. The company also had to give away the membership it had with the National Restaurant Association, the industry’s largest advocacy group. After the 2015 outbreaks, it has stopped using the group’s ServSafe food safety certification program for its managers.

While discussing food borne organisms, Buchanan said, “Food safety isn’t rocket science. It’s following tried and true rules and paying attention to them…In Chipotle’s situation, you have a lot of food, a lot of room for cross contamination. There’s a lot of hand handling”. Proper food washing, cooking process and frequently sanitized workstations can kill most of the food borne organisms.