Chipotle investigated by federal grand jury over norovirus at Southern California restaurant
The Chipotle restaurant chain is under investigation for a norovirus outbreak at one store, Reuters reported Wednesday.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows that the Denver-based chain is under criminal investigation for a norovirus outbreak traced to a Chipotle restaurant in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Norovirus causes vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain, and it is highly contagious. It can be spread by contaminated food or from person to person.
The California outbreak happened in August at a restaurant in Simi Valley, California and affected nearly 100 people. The SEC filing says Chipotle must produce a “broad range of documents.” The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
A spokesman for the company told the Los Angeles Times it would cooperate fully.
The subpoena arrived in December, the same month that a different Chipotle restaurant in Brighton, Massachusetts, was the site of another norovirus outbreak. In that outbreak, the Boston Globe reported, more than 100 people got sick, including members of the Boston College men’s basketball team. Inspectors found that an employee had come to work sick and that meat hadn’t been heated enough. That restaurant was closed for much of December.
Chipotle is also tied to two recent outbreaks of food poisoning from E. coli. According to the Los Angeles Times, one affected 53 people in nine states and another affected five people in three states.
