E. Coli Chipotle Breakout Nazmul Chaudhury

Chipotle has been around for more than 20 years, but it has just recently become a popular lunch spot. After McDonald’s invested in their company, it grew more popular and claimed the 8th rank in the fastest growing food chain companies in 2009 (Brandau). Since then, Chipotle has expanded around the world, with over 2,000 locations.

CAN WE TRUST FAST FOODS? Many prestigious fast food restaurants, like McDonalds or Chipotle, are visited daily by millions of customers. These customers are either in a rush, or they are not financially capable of buying healthier foods. They place their trust on these food organizations to provide them with cheap and affordable options. Instead, these organizations tend to disregard the attention required to keep foods intact and free of bacteria and diseases. Although each ingredient originates from different places, the process of maintaining them should be uniform throughout their journey to the organization. The consumer’s safety is undermined because of lack of attention and profit margins for the producers.

Chipotle smh However, in the late 2015, there were many reported cases of an E. coli outbreak, which had heavily affected Chipotle’s sales and reputation. Approximately 400 people reported being ill from this outbreak, some of whom required hospitalization. This is a major food problem as Chipotle is one of the many fast-food chain restaurants that are visited by thousands of people a day. These health risks should be taken seriously, as many lives can be affected and destroyed. Although there may not have been thousands of cases with this outbreak, the importance of food safety must never be undermined.

Immediate response In Roberto Ferdman’s excerpt, "What in the World Is Happening to Chipotle,” he expands on the Chipotle crisis, as soon as it happened. During the late 2015 The outbreaks occurred during late 2015. This article provides information of Chipotle’s response to the outbreak, as they closed some locations to review sanitary conditions. Ferdman states that however they have taken these steps, the damage has already been done. He states, “On the one hand, Chipotle has an ongoing food scare to clean up and then, eventually, erase from the minds of its customers.” Unfortunately, the consumer’s mindset is flawed as food safety issues can be disregarded as time progresses. This demonstrates the food issue that is prevalent in our society.

FDA INvestigation The FDA stated the exact strain of E. coli contracted by many, and how there was never a true origin to the outbreak. Instead, Chipotle employees focused on food safety precautions. This information is necessary as it gives a clear picture of what really happened with the outbreaks. “Even without a definitive item to follow, the FDA traced back to their origins some widely distributed ingredients in an effort to identify a source for the outbreak. Unfortunately, the distribution path did not lead to an ingredient of interest.” This quote portrays how there was no explanation of the outbreak, which does not reflect well upon Chipotle. If only one ingredient from a distributor has some sort of detrimental substance, the effect on the population could be tremendous. There are thousands of people who rely on fast foods. These detrimental substances can affect them, which would spread to their families, which would spread to their workplace, etc.

Post-outbreak In an article by Katie Little that was released a year after the outbreak, Chipotle’s downfall is still prevalent in its sales. She states that although Chipotle has been promoting their safety, consumers are not yet convinced that they can trust this institution as they did before. She also states that new restaurants are performing even worse. Although Chipotle defends this decline by stating that “recovery is happening,” according to Chipotle spokesman, Chris Arnold, the stock still remains 42% lower than prior to the outbreak. This information is necessary to provide the impact of the E. coli outbreak to Chipotle’s sales and reputation. “Still, he's (John Zolidis, restaurant analyst) optimistic that in the long run, customers will not even remember Chipotle's food safety crises.” This statement by Zolidis states that the consumers will eventually disregard the current food safety crisis, which is a flaw in consumer mentality.

Too late now chipotle Overall, Chipotle has not overcome the food safety issue they were challenged with. Although they have added more health inspection points to ensure the ingredient’s safety, its reputation has been tarnished. They have not retrieved many of the customers that were lost, despite different promotions and more advertisements. This did serve as a wakeup call to food consumers, although it was not apparent enough. Surely, these mishaps are bound to happen again, due to the large population that depend on fast foods. This is a food issue in our society that is not regarded as highly as it should be. Food poisoning and illnesses contracted from fast foods should influence consumers to pay more attention to the foods they eat, and the risk they take by trying to save more money.

Consumers be like:

Bibliography  Brandau, Mark (2011-03-14). "The fastest-growing restaurant brands". Nation's Restaurant News. Web. Chamlee, Virginia. "Chipotle Coughs Up Big Bucks for Its E. Coli Disaster." Eater. N.p., 09 Sept. 2016. Web. Ferdman, Roberto A. "What in the World Is Happening to Chipotle." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2015. Web. 01   Little, Katie. "One Year after Chipotle's Health Crisis Started, the Chain Continues to Struggle." CNBC. Getty Images, 2016. Web.