We may not have heard of any new outbreaks from Chipotle in a while, but that doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods.
Chipotle has been hit with a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena, in response to all of its recent outbreaks.
They were served in December 2015. It’s part of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
It’s a response to one particular outbreak that occurred at a Chipotle location in Simi Valley, California.
An outbreak of norovirus occurred at this location in August of 2015. Chipotle claims that this incident was isolated from all of the other incidents.
“It is not possible at this time to determine whether we will incur, or to reasonably estimate the amount of, any fines, penalties, or further liabilities in connection with the investigation pursuant to which the subpoena was issued,” said Chipotle in a statement.
The outbreak in Simi Valley affected 100 people with norovirus. This was the second outbreak at the time, the other one being Salmonella outbreak in Minnesota. E. coli outbreaks in October and November followed.
December saw more outbreaks for Chipotle, when 140 Boston students were infected with norovirus after eating Chipotle.
This has seen Chipotle’s stock prices fall 42% in the past three months. They probably won’t do much better in stock prices or in sales this quarter, and expects a 14.6% drop in sales.
Of course, Chipotle has little choice but to cooperate. But things certainly aren’t looking up for everyone’s favorite “healthy” Mexican fast food chain.
