Chipotle is facing many allegations since the beginning of the year. Lawsuits were filed from left to right against the Mexican food chain and now the Feds are the ones who will take care of their problems.
Food borne illnesses were reported to come from the restaurant chain starting from last year with Salmonella and E Coli. Alternet reported that Chipotle is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track the outbreaks. But just this Thursday, it was announced that the Feds will look into the problems of Chipotle. Usually it is the farmers and food producers, not local chains that are investigated by federal agencies. It was the norovirus incident in Simi Valley, California that urged the federal criminal investigation.
The feds is not the sole problem that Chipotle is facing, stated Huffington Post. An investor sued the burrito chain for confusing investors about food safety controls. Susie Ong, with her Attorney, filed the civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is hoping of opening a class-action suit on behalf of stockholders who bought shares between February 2015 and January 2016. The attorney, Jeremy A. Lieberman said on a phone interview with HP that Chipotle's statements about control of ingredients were obviously untrue and have made a remarkable safety hazard to their patrons.
Investors in the company saw major losses with their shares because of these health alarms that were raised by regulators. However, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold declined to comment.
Investors.com said that Chipotle is seeing a messy start this year. Though the E. coli outbreak is finished and the new illnesses are not affecting them as of the moment, they were still hugely affected. However, shares were up 5.1% to 424.83 on the stock market today as it saw the end of the E. coli outbreak nearing.
The new illnesses have slowed down since the peak of the outbreak in October 2015. More than 50 people across nine states over the past several months have been affected by the Chipotle E. coli outbreak.
