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Chipotle Rethinking Food Safety Changes

Chipotle

Pathogen Testing



Fast-casual food chain Chipotle made headlines this week with rumors it plans to scale back some of its new food safety efforts.

Just last month, Chipotle announced it was conducting high-resolution DNA-based testing of many ingredients. But now, the company may eliminate pathogen testing on some ingredients.

Chipotle communications director Chris Arnold recently made the following statement:

"We are not dialing back our food safety efforts, our commitment to establishing Chipotle as a leader in food safety remains fully intact. Over the last few months, we have implemented a number of programs and procedures to enhance food safety - including prep of some ingredients in central kitchens, high resolution testing of ingredients, and procedural changes in our restaurants. Any changes we may make to our initial plans will be to strengthen what we are doing."

Those new programs and procedures-like the preparation of ingredients in central kitchens and pre-cooking beef before shipment-are at odds with Chipotle's fresh, natural, "food with integrity" mission.

Taking Stock of the Situation



The new food safety measures come in the wake of a series of disease outbreaks at restaurants across the country last year, including two E. Coli outbreaks that sickened 53 people in several states, and a norovirus outbreak in that sickened 136 people in Boston and 234 in Simi Valley, Calif.

And just last week, they had another norovirus scare at a Boston location, sickening several employees and temporarily closing the site.

Those disease outbreaks are likely to blame for the company's current financial woes. Chipotle's shares dropped 47 percent from October to January as investors hurried to separate themselves from the struggling chain. Currently, the company's first-quarter performance is down 26 percent from a year ago. Shares of the fast-casual restaurant chain were down 2.9 percent Wednesday to $509.28.

Chipotle also announced this week they've hired meat-science Kansas State University professor James Marsden as its new executive director of food safety-a position previously held by "a number of officials" in the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Marsden has conducted research on the control of E. coli O157 in raw meat and studied the use of high-pressure pasteurization and ultraviolet light to kill foodborne pathogens.

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