News

Chipotle announces retraining initiatives to help prevent food safety issues

August 17, 2018

In an effort to prevent food safety issues, like the recent cases in Ohio, Chipotle is retraining all employees next week during their shifts, Laurie Schalow, Chipotle's chief communications officer, wrote in an email to FastCasual. 

"Then to ensure ongoing execution and compliance, we are adding to our daily food safety routines a recurring online employee knowledge assessment of our food safety standards," she said. "We will be walking everyone through our top food safety initiatives with demonstrations of each. Examples are proper handwashing, proper hot and cold temperatures, cooking and prep procedures, etcetera."

Nearly 650 people said they suffered from food poisoning and diarrhea, between July 26 and 30, after eating at a Chipotle in Powell, Ohio

Local health officials said a bacterium known as Clostridium perfringens caused the outbreak. It is commonly found in beef, poultry, gravies and dried or pre-cooked foods that "are prepared in large quantities and kept warm for a long time before serving," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CEO Brian Niccol said in a statement that the chain has a zero-tolerance policy for any violations of its "stringent food safety standards.

"Once we identified this incident, we acted quickly to close the Powell restaurant and implemented our food safety response protocols that include total replacement of all food inventory and complete cleaning and sanitization of the restaurant. While this incident impacted only one restaurant, Chipotle field leadership will be retraining all restaurant employees nationwide beginning next week on food safety and wellness protocols. To ensure consistent food safety execution, we will be adding to our daily food safety routines a recurring employee knowledge assessment of our rigorous food safety standards."

The chain has been struggling with food safety issues since 2015, and has since implemented safety standards and food-handling procedures in hopes of preventing similar occurrences.