Chipotle To Close All U.S. Stores For Food Safety Meeting

By Tim Darnell

---

Canton, GA -- Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced that all of its restaurants will be close on Feb. 8 for a company-wide meeting on last year’s E.coli outbreak and a more recent norovirus outbreak.

The topic of the meeting will be food safety, reports TheSource.com.

Several Chipotle locations had to close permanently in 2015 during an E.coli outbreak. A norovirus outbreak later infected 141 people in Boston, according to a statement issued by CEO Steve Ellis.

“The fact that anyone has become ill eating at Chipotle is completely unacceptable to me and I am deeply sorry,” Ellis said. “As a result, we are committed to becoming known as the leader in food safety, just as we are known for using the very best ingredients in a fast food setting.”

• Chipotle Mexican Grill is located at 2026 Cumming Highway #110 in Canton.

On Jan. 6, Chipotle was served with a federal grand jury subpoena regarding a norovirus outbreak last year at one of its California restaurants. Chipotle is required to produce documents that are tied to the Simi Valley restaurant where the virus was detected.

Company sales fell 30 percent in December. Chipotle will be doubling up on the amount of free food for customers when it reopens.

Chipotle has locations throughout the metro Atlanta area, including Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, North Druid Hills, Decatur, Smyrna-Vinings, Marietta and Kennesaw.

“I’m hopeful that the CDC will call this over soon,” Ellis said. ”We know that Chipotle is as safe as it’s ever been before. We are all very confident that this E. coli outbreak would not happen again.”

---

Image via Chipotle’s Facebook page