Safety Not Snow Will Close Chipotle For Part of Monday

By CHARLENE ARSENAULT (Patch Staff)

FRAMINGHAM, MA - No breakfast burritos for a day.

All Chipotle restaurants across the country will close for part of the day in February when its employees will attend a national team meeting to discuss food-safety changes.

The meeting, happening on Feb. 8, will not only discuss food-safety changes, but allow employees a chance to ask questions and “thank them for their hard work during this difficult time.”

The stores, of which there are 1,895 in the United States, will open at 3 p.m. on that day.

This announcement came before the winter storm warning was issued, so there is a possibility the Framingham Chipotle in Shoppers World may not open at all on Monday. Please call ahead before venturing out.

The announcement comes on the heels of a string of bad publicity surrounding E.coli outbreaks and other foodborne illnesses that were traced back to the burrito chain. Chipotle’s sales were down 30 percent in December.

Chipotle Mexican Grill was also recently sued for allegedly misleading its investors about food safety controls, andfaces a criminal investigation in connection with a norovirus outbreak at one of its California restaurants.

The company closed stores across the country in the wake of norovirus and E. coli outbreaks at several locations nationwide that have sickened hundreds.

A Boston-area Chipotle was shut down in December after roughly 140 people were sickened after eating at the Cleveland Circle location, many of them Boston College students.

A subpoena demanding a wide range of documents relating to anorovirus outbreak at a Simi Valley, California, store was received last month, the Associated Press reported.

Illnesses linked to Chipotle food have also been reported in the Pacific Northwest and across the Northeast, including in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.

On Feb. 1, Chipotle announced that The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was pronouncing the health scare has ended.