BAD FEVER IS BACK
Chipotle faces more E. coli outbreaks
Chipotle Mexican Grill’s Steve Ells was forced to deal with another food fright to deal with on Monday after yet another E. coli outbreak was linked to his chain’s food.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in the latest cases five people got sick after eating at Chipotle restaurants in Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma from Nov. 18 to Nov. 26.
The new cases were not part of the previous ninestate outbreak.
The CDC report, coming at 2:45 p.m., sent shares of the Denverbased company down 5.6 percent in six minutes — wiping out about $932 million in value.
Shares bottomed out at $508.10, a 52week low, before closing at $521.71, down 3.6 percent on the session.
The latest cases involve a strain of E. coli different from that of prior incidents, raising more concerns about the magnitude of the outbreaks.
“We expected that we may see additional cases stemming from this,” a Chipotle spokesman said.
The company’s pat statements are rubbing some consumers the wrong way.
When Ells, the chain’s cochief executive, appeared on the “Today” show last week and expressed remorse for the E. coli and norovirus outbreaks in the fall, Traci Bucknor of Simi Valley, Calif., was watching as she got ready for work.
“I was so irritated when I saw that interview,” said Bucknor, who was among more than 200 Chipotle customers in her town who contracted norovirus after weeks earlier eating at a restaurant at 1263 Simi Town Center Way — an episode that got relatively little media attention.
“He never mentioned what happened in August, but I guess he figured it [wasn’t reported] nationwide so he didn’t have to talk about it.”
Bucknor spent the night of Aug. 19 in the emergency room. “I’d never been sicker in my life,” she recalls.
Last week, Chipotle also took out fullpage ads in 61 newspapers around the country apologizing for the outbreaks in Boston and in nine states — but not in the earlier cases.
A regular customer who ate at Chipotle at least once a week, Bucknor told The Post, “I couldn’t ever go back.”
William Marler, a lawyer who represents Brucknor, has submitted a claim on her behalf, including the two weeks it took her to fully recover.
As The Post reported, there were E. coli, norovirus and salmonella outbreaks involving Chipotle restaurants going back to July.
The Simi Valley incident involved 17 workers infected with norovirus, and the eatery received violations for pestcontrol and sanitation failures, said the Ventura County health department.
The bad food is taking a toll not only on Chipotle shares but on its reputation. The company said that because of the outbreaks, it expects fourthquarter profits to fall short of expectations by a healthy margin.