“I’m sorry for the people who got sick. They’re having a tough time, and I feel terrible about that.”
new york» Chipotle shares rose Thursday after founder and co-CEO Steve Ells said he is “deeply sorry” about the customers who were sickened after eating at the chain in recent weeks.
“I’m sorry for the people who got sick. They’re having a tough time, and I feel terrible about that,” Ells said in an interview on NBC’s Today show.
Ells repeated the Denver-based company’s pledge to tighten food safety procedures to ensure such incidents do not happen again.
Ells didn’t specify the new food-safety procedures but said they would be “10 to 15 years ahead of industry norms.”
In its annual report, Chipotle has noted it might be at a higher risk for outbreaks of food-borne illnesses because of its “fresh produce and meats rather than frozen, and our reliance on employees cooking with traditional methods rather than automation.”
Internal teams of public-health and food-safety professionals are inspecting Chipotle’s entire distribution chain to develop the new procedures.
Company shares, which have been pummeled since the outbreak, rebounded sharply after Ells’ interview, jumping almost 7 percent to $578.53, before dropping again. Shares closed up 27.42 points at 575.43 but were still down 20 percent over the past three months.
Also Thursday, Boston College said the number of students who have reported feeling ill increased from 120 to 141 but said 12 of those students did not eat at the Chipotle restaurant.
Norovirus can be transmitted by eating contaminated food, or by touching infected surfaces, then putting your fingers in your mouth.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that at least 52 people in nine states have been sickened in an E. coli outbreak, with 47 of them having eaten at Chipotle. The most recent case happened Nov. 13.
The ingredient that sickened people has not been identified. But Chipotle says whatever the likely culprit was is out of its restaurants. The company has noted the exposure period for the outbreak appears to have passed.
Chipotle temporarily closed the Boston restaurant where the students said they ate this past weekend and says it thinks the illnesses are an isolated case of norovirus separate from the E. coli outbreak.
Public health officials also said norovirus was found at the restaurant and that “the clear expectation is that the illness on campus is limited to the norovirus.”
Officials said an employee at the restaurant was sick during a shift last week and might have caused the outbreak of norovirus, which is very contagious and causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Chipotle says it offers employees paid sick days and that the employee in question would have been eligible for the benefit.
Chris Arnold, a Chipotle spokesman, also said an employee coming in sick was in violation of the company’s policies.
Before reopening the restaurant in Boston, Arnold said all the employees are being tested for norovirus and that they will not return to work until they are cleared.
Also on Thursday, health officials closed a Chipotle restaurant in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood for repeated foodsafety violations.