Thanks to the E.Coli outbreak at many of its locations around the country, Chipotle is in crisis mode. The popular Mexican food restaurant chain announced today that all of its locations will be closed for one day in February for an all-hands-on-deck meeting.
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told The Oregonian that the meeting will take place on Feb. 8. All staff will be involved and the primary topic will be improved food safety.
“We want to thank our teams for all of their hard work, to discuss some of the changes we are making to enhance food safety, to talk about the restaurant's role in all of that and to answer questions from employees,” Arnold said.
The E.Coli outbreak began in Washington State and Oregon in October and several locations there had to be closed. The outbreak spread to more states throughout the fall. Cases involved customers in Massachusetts, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, California, Ohio and Minnesota.
Federal authorities are investigating Chipotle and customers have begun to avoid the chain. According to The New York Times, Chipotle said that its same-store sales plummeted 14.6 percent during the last quarter.
“If there’s a silver lining in this, it is that by not knowing for sure what the cause is, it’s prompted us to look at every ingredient we use with an eye to improving our practices,” Arnold told the Times. “We did a really comprehensive review of food safety practices from farm to restaurants. From that assessment we developed a food safety plan which we hope will establish Chipotle as a leader in food safety.”