Chipotle plans to close all of its restaurants for a short period of time on Feb. 8 while it convenes a company-wide meeting to discus food safety following successive food poisoning outbreaks that made hundreds of people across the country sick.
Chipotle, which pressured other fast food chains to be more health-conscious by serving fresher and less-processed food, has been slow to recover from a salmonella outbreak, an E. coli outbreak and a norovirus outbreak. Not only did the health issues drive away diners in droves—sales dropped 30 percent—it forced the restaurant to briefly shut down dozens of storefronts, sunk Chipotle’s stock, spurred a federal investigation and prompted a shareholder lawsuit.
Federal officials have not yet said that the E. Coli outbreak is over, and the company’s usually high-flying stock is still down more than 30 percent from pre-food poisoning levels.
Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold told The Chicago Tribunethat Chipotle hired a food safety expert, has started testing produce before shipping it to stores and plans to kick off a campaign next month to rehabilitate its image.
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