What Is Causing The Chipotle Outbreaks?
 

If anyone here knows about food safety, food supply chain, food preparation - what do you think is causing the Chipotle E. Coli outbreaks?.

This has been going on for months now, in dozens of restaurants in many different states. Surely any contaminated batch of ingredient would have been consumed or discarded by now, and the company must know what supplies all those restaurants have in common?. Every step of the cooking process must have been checked for systematic problems, and how could so many restaurants be making mistakes at the same time?

Maybe it's because of bad food? Just saying.

I was hoping for more substantive answers.

No honey buckets in the cilantro fields is my guess.

Chipotle was using local ingredients. My guess is that the locals aren't as health and safety conscious.

fresh ingredients. i think JW is correct.

one case was a non-hand washer, right?

I don't know but haven't eaten there since the outbreak. Business has to be down.

it's always too salty for me, so i never eat there.

it smells amazing walking by tho.

There is a reason for "process" in processed foods...

That's why I only get my burritos at the places that call out your pickup number in Spanish. And give you limes, radish slices and grilled jalapeños gratis. And Horchata, they gotta have Horchata.

/\/\ Si, mon "Por aqui. o por llavar..." ;)

Yes!!

It seems like they can't control the sodium....

Used to really like to get lunch at a local one... Then saw the amount of salt that was being applied in the back...

I believe salt can be used as a method to control some bacteria. Also, hand hygiene from the field all the way to the plate is really important--I have a tough time eating in restaurants having seen, experienced and heard some pretty nasty stuff. :(

On the upside, the kids ate my chicken fried rice tonite and asked for seconds! It was my first attempt at chinese food.:)

Good question John. Restaurants in such distant places that probably have different sources for a lot of their ingredients must have some contaminated ingredients in common. Hard to understand why they haven't identified them by now.

No clue. I've got a friend watching the stock like a hawk though. He says he's waiting for it to hit bottom and then he's buying!

I've eaten there a few times, don't think it is anything special. Better than your average fast food place for sure. Doesn't stand out when you have dozens of food carts and some actual Mexican restaurants to choose from.

What's amazing is that as far as we know, they haven't discovered the problem by now... and fixed it.

Isn't the CDC and or the Health Dept. usually all over stuff like this like a duck on a junebug?

I prefer Cafe Rio over chipotle.

Too much smug in the recipe.

It has to be fresh veggies.

They need to switch to pre packaged deli meat with lots of preservatives and chemicals. That fresh crap can kill ya.

Maybe they are hiring cheap labor who don't wash their left hand.

I had it twice in last two day.. I'm ok!!!

I think the company and the various agencies are all over the investigation, which is why it is so interesting that they haven't found the cause.

Sounds like all the fresh food prep done in the restaurants (which will change) increases the risk of an individual restaurant having problems. But i think (please correct me if I'm wrong) the first outbreak is all a single problem, because the E Coli was all one strain in all the cases from many different restaurants. And the second outbreak is another single problem, since all those cases from different restaurants involved another E Coli strain.

Just an uneducated opinion:

A business being run by a Board of Directors that has no understanding of the industry, nor cares for the well being of their consumers.........Too focused on the Bottom line at the expense of my health. The industry has Rules and polices to prevent these issues.....

Have never eaten there and at this point, I never will......

Like many things in American life, there is likely no change in the rate of food poisoning from Chipotle, only a change in the reporting. Yet another tiresome, un-noteworthy, blip in the American craposphere we call 'news'.

there are critical control measures in the industry that did not fit in with there "fresh and healthy" business model. The food might be healthy but the forgotten part in minimum wage fast food establishments workers is there toilet habits. both of the recent outbreaks stem from oral-fecal transmission of these pathogens. wiping your butt with toilet paper and washing your hands with hot water and soap would go a long way in preventing these bugs. Also, heating things to 190˚F would kill these bugs. But that goes counter to there "fresh responsible" concept on making a fricken burrito.

"Organic produce" is code for "fertilized with steer manure" or other natural means. I suspect this was the source for widespread outbreaks just like the organic bean sprouts from Germany where nearly 4000 Europeans were stricken a few years ago. They need a better way to test,screen, and clean organic produce to make sure their food is wholesome and keep customers safe. If you kill off all your clients, there will be no one left to buy your burritos.

I had a friend who worked at a Chipotle for a year while in college and she said there was little or no food safety culture among managers or employees.

I generally avoid all fast food these days and prepare my own. A fine restaurant is still a possible risk but if the food is cooked thoroughly it is pretty safe.

Alot of cases are from moisture or water keeping vegetables ,example ,lettuce,bean sprouts, celery,etc,etc,if kept for more than 3 -4 days ,bacteria and fermentation has already started, even if stored cold.--.Just look at a stagnate pool of water pool or pond.
turns green,with Mosquitoes .Also happens on cruise liner tours.

What is shocking - from the article above - is this:

You tell me they do NOT have a supply chain that has a system tracing their ingredients from producer to store? If I pull up a box of cilantro in one of their stores, they will not be able to tell me where it came from? They will not be able to tell me where the cilantro came from on a particular day or even week? They only have 64 ingredients according to that article!

IMHO, looking at the freaks working in that place, it may be a bunch of butt wipers not washing their hands. I never thought of it as particular clean. Sure, it is all nicely propped up, but there is still a lady missing teeth assembling my food. The model of preparing something in front of a row of people (i.e. also at Subway) grosses me out. Plastic gloves handling food and off you go to the toilet / cash register / etc.

And as a final note. Only in a very bad bind will you find me going to a Chipotle. In CA I can find a better burrito in any real Mexican restaurant. Where they cook their food HOT and the guy making the food is in the BACK, away from the cash register and spit slinging customer orders. :)

Cheers,

G

I believe it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to arise........

That pretty much sums it up. While the media is selectively reporting and overblowing this story for their financial benefit, zillions of other equivalent or more significant events have gone by unnoticed.

I have been sick about a half dozen times in the last 25 years. Once when I got the flu shot, and the rest of the times werer food poisoning when I went out to eat

WRT Chipotle, tried it once, did not return. Mr Walker has it right on their current issues. E coli is not from veggies being wet and fermenting, it is generally from fecal material.

With the amount of food processed in this country I'm surprised
it doesn't happen more.
If you think about the journey of your food from the field
to your plate it's really unsettling

I ate there once. Like above, I found it wasn't a burrito but a collection of semi-Mexican ingredients rolled into a tortilla shell. I think the crowd that likes Chipotle must be the "rate burritos by size" crowd because they sure as heck can't hold a candle to any decent Mexi joint here in Chicago.

Rice and beans in my burrito? You gotta be kidding me.

I don't think this crisis is a hand washing thing, it's too pervasive. Gotta be some common practice or ingredient.

Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) Infection - Transmission, Symptoms And Diagnosis | Doctor Tipster
A little history on Ecoli 0157:H7 that caused the problems in Oregon and Washington.

I go for the patron margaritas.

Danica thinks it's a conspiracy ! ;-)

Interesting Thought

Isn't everything explainable by conspiracy? Could be the chemtrails.

I'd heard of the GMO conspiracy theory from other people as well.

Europe and other countries are banning that poison garbage... labeled as 'edible safe food'.

Some cultural ideas will gain inertia.
Billions of shareholder profits are currently at stake.