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Chipotle subpoenaed in federal inquiry into norovirus outbreak, Mexican shit in the food again.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill said Wednesday that it had been served a 
federal grand jury subpoena as part of a criminal investigation 
seeking information about a norovirus outbreak at a California 
restaurant.

The move could represent a highly unusual step by federal 
authorities, which generally have tended to focus on 
manufacturers or farmers, rather than restaurants, in 
investigations of food-borne illnesses, food safety experts said.

But it was unknown whether Chipotle was a target of the inquiry 
or whether it centered on some part of the food supply chain. 
Federal officials declined to comment.

The inquiry was yet another setback for Chipotle, which has been 
struggling to contain the damage to its sales and reputation 
from a series of food-related illnesses among customers and 
employees, including outbreaks of E. coli in other states in 
which it closed some restaurants, and, last month, a norovirus 
outbreak in Boston.

Chipotle said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange 
Commission that news of additional food-related illnesses and 
outbreaks in the last several weeks of 2015 had caused a drop in 
sales in December alone of about 30 percent in stores that had 
been open more than a year. Its stock has tumbled since news of 
the outbreaks began.

The company declined to comment beyond the filing.

Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer representing plaintiffs in 
cases involving the California norovirus outbreak and others 
involving food contamination, said the federal inquiry was 
unusual.

“It’s perplexing, because I’ve never seen this before,” he said 
of the investigation, which so far seemed focused on only one 
Chipotle restaurant.

Two hundred and seven people, including 18 Chipotle employees, 
reported falling ill after eating at one of its restaurants in 
Simi Valley, Calif., in mid-August, according to Doug Beach, 
manager of the community services program at the Ventura County 
Environmental Health Division. He said that workers had closed 
and cleaned the restaurant, but did not notify his agency until 
after it reopened.

“I do not know why Chipotle chose not to tell us until 
everything was done,” he said, adding that restaurants typically 
contact the department as soon as they are aware of food-borne 
illness cases.

The subpoena was issued by the U.S. attorney’s office for the 
Central District of California in an inquiry it is conducting 
with the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal 
Investigations, Chipotle said in the filing. The subpoena seeks 
“a broad range of documents,” the filing said, although Chipotle 
did not say whether it was the target of the investigation.

“Whenever there’s an investigation of a target, many, many 
people who do business with that target get a subpoena,” said 
James F. Neale, a partner at the law firm McGuireWoods and co-
author of “Food Safety Law.” “We’re just looking through a very 
limited keyhole.”

Representatives of the FDA and the U.S. attorney’s office 
declined to comment.

Experts said it was unclear what might have prompted the 
inquiry. In the past, such investigations have been opened when 
contaminated food crosses state lines, Neale and Marler said, 
and typically center on food producers.

“It doesn’t look to me like this California outbreak goes beyond 
one restaurant,” Neale said. “We haven’t typically seen federal 
law enforcement activity for localized outbreaks.”

Norovirus was also at the center of an episode in which about 
120 Boston College students reported getting sick in December 
after eating at a Chipotle restaurant near the campus.

The company had already been in the spotlight after various 
restaurants around the country reported outbreaks of E. coli 
bacteria. In early November, Chipotle voluntarily closed 43 
restaurants in Washington state and Oregon because of an 
outbreak. The bacteria are common in the intestines of animals 
and people, but some strains can cause illness or even death.

Chipotle’s reputation – and sales – fell further the week of 
Dec. 21, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
said it was investigating five new cases of E. coli reported in 
November.

All told, more than 500 people were sickened after eating in a 
Chipotle restaurant in the last half of 2015, according to Food 
Safety News.

Shares of Chipotle fell nearly 5 percent Wednesday, to close at 
$426.67. The stock had been trading above $700 a share in the 
summer.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-
world/national/article53444675.html
  

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Chipotle subpoenaed in federal inquiry into norovirus outbreak, Mexican shit in the food again. "Tyler" <tyler@facts.org> - 2016-03-05 09:05 +0100
  Re: Chipotle subpoenaed in federal inquiry into norovirus outbreak, Mexican shit in the food again. Dänk 42Ø <dogfood@blacklabrador.com> - 2016-03-22 02:08 -0600

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