If you were thinking of having a burrito for a late morning snack or lunch, think again. Chipotle the fast-casual Mexican food burrito chain will be closed on Monday until 3:00 p.m. for a safety briefing that is companywide after the recent outbreaks of E. coli and norovirus sickened patrons.
While you might need to wait for you daily fix of guacamole, the company has said that customers can listen to the briefing through Periscope and Twitter beginning at noon ET.
Close to 50,000 employees will be attending the meeting in gathering areas like conference rooms at hotels and movie theaters in order to listen to the broadcast made by executives.
Employees along with customers might finally have a time to finally receive an explanation from the restaurant chain regarding how the norovirus and E. coli outbreaks took place last year.
Executives have promised to overhaul the food safety standards at the company.
Chipotle has fallen into a crisis mode for a number of months since illnesses were traced back to specific restaurants. Sales have fallen and traffic plummeted during the fourth quarter. Shares of the stock are off in morning trading Monday shares were down another 2%.
In October, people who ate at a Chipotle began having symptoms of E. coli, an outbreak overall that affected over 50 people across 11 states.
Another outbreak of another E. coli strain then affected 5 different people in December. In December as well, a Boston Chipotle saw over 120 people come down with norovirus.
An investigation by federal authorities into the outbreak of E. coli was closed officially last week when the U.S. Center for Disease Control said it appeared to be over with no being diagnosed since December 21.
Investigators were not able to determine what specific food caused the outbreak. At the same time, Chipotle is under a criminal investigation for the incident of norovirus at a store this past August.
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