And in the most recent case, on Dec. 21, the CDC announced it was investigating an outbreak of what seems to be a different and rare version of E. coli 026 that’s sickened five people in two states who ate at Chipotle in mid-November. ![]() In the second week of December, when Chipotle should have been on highest alert, a Seattle restaurant had to be briefly shut down after a health inspection found that cooked meat on the takeout line wasn’t being kept at a high enough temperature. The source? A sick worker who wasn’t sent home although Chipotle began offering paid sick leave in June. An additional 16 students and three health-care staff picked it up from the victims. Norovirus struck again in late November: More than 140 Boston College students picked up the highly contagious virus from a nearby Chipotle, including half of the men’s basketball team. Salmonella-tainted tomatoes at 22 outlets in Minnesota sickened 64 people in August and September nine had to be hospitalized. In August, 234 customers and employees contracted norovirus at a Chipotle in Simi Valley, Calif., where another worker was infected. By the time local health officials had confirmed a link, the outbreak was over, so no one said anything. Three months before Collins was infected with E. coli, five people fell ill eating at a Seattle-area restaurant. Its executives seemed to have done the impossible and made a national fast-food chain feel healthy.įewer people associate Chipotle with “healthy” now. It helped the company, charging about $7 for a burrito, reach a market valuation of nearly $24 billion. The implication: If you eat Chipotle, you’re doing the right thing, and maybe you’re better, too. It’s grown into a chain of more than 1,900 locations, thanks in part to marketing-including short animated films about the evils of industrial agriculture-that reminds customers that its fresh ingredients and naturally raised meat are better than rivals’ and better for the world. “People could die from this, and they were so smug.”įor a long time, smug worked pretty well for Chipotle Mexican Grill. But local media reported that at least one restaurant in Portland put up a note that said, “Don’t panic … order should be restored to the universe in the very near future.” “That felt so snarky,” Collins says. Notices on restaurant doors generally referred to problems with the supply chain or equipment. The company closed all 43 of its restaurants in Oregon and Washington in early November to try to identify the source of the E. coli and sanitize the spaces. “We fell for their branding.” Chipotle’s public stance during the outbreak irritated him, too. “I trusted they were providing me with ‘food with integrity,’ ” Collins says, sarcastically repeating the company motto. Twenty got sick enough to be hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. coli 46 had eaten at Chipotle in the week before they fell ill. Subscribe now.Ĭollins was among 53 people in nine states who were sickened with the same strain of E. “It made me feel old and weak and anxious.” On Nov. 6, Collins sued Chipotle, seeking unspecified damages.įeatured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Dec. For a long time after, I couldn’t even walk a few blocks,” he says. He still doesn’t have as much physical strength as he used to, and he feels emotionally shaky, too. His kidneys held up, but it took an additional five days for the worst of Collins’s symptoms to ease and nearly six weeks for him to recover. ![]() (This was later confirmed by public-health officials.) The doctor warned him that kidney failure was possible intensive treatment, including dialysis, could be necessary. coli 026, and he’d likely gotten it from one of those 21 ingredients in his meal at Chipotle. On Halloween, the ER doctor called him at home: Collins had Shiga-toxin-producing E. It was incredibly scary.” After five days, he went to an urgent-care clinic near his home the nurse sent him to an emergency room. “Moving gave me excruciating pain,” he says, “and anytime I ate or drank it got worse.” His diarrhea turned bloody. Then he began experiencing cramping and diarrhea. ![]() It tasted as good as always.īy the next night, Collins’s body was aching and his stomach was upset. His dinner was made of 21 ingredients, including toasted cumin, sautéed garlic, fresh organic cilantro, finely diced tomatoes, two kinds of onion, romaine lettuce, and kosher salt. On Friday evening, Oct. 23, he ordered his regular chicken bowl at his usual Chipotle in Lake Oswego. Collins liked to have a meal at Chipotle once a week. He and his wife are conscientious about their food: They eat organic, local produce and ethically raised animals. Chris Collins is a 32-year-old Web developer and photographer who lives in Oregon, just outside Portland.
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