Chipotle Sterling- Food Poisoning Outbreak

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Restaurants (especially smaller ones or non-chains) are slow to recognize or acknowledge food poisoning. One the things I like to do, and advise others to do, in order to give restaurant staff a real incentive to be careful with food handling is to go back and use *their* bathroom as frequently as possible during the 24 to 48 hours following a food borne illness. It really drives the point home.

When that's not possible due to logistics, I make a mental note to go back and visit the next time I need to take nasty dump. Think of it as a literal sh*t list.

Brilliant idea, but how can you drag yourself out when you've got food poisoning?

[Anonymous]

This is what happens when you have an uninspired white guy masquerading as a Mexican chef. Anyone paying for this cultural appropriation deserves what they get.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how Chiptole is so much more susceptible than other restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what happens when you have an uninspired white guy masquerading as a Mexican chef. Anyone paying for this cultural appropriation deserves what they get.

Go away angry lefty and don't come back until you have something relevant to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how Chiptole is so much more susceptible than other restaurants.

I too have wondered this. I think it's because the food isn't "hot" per say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how Chiptole is so much more susceptible than other restaurants.

I too have wondered this. I think it's because the food isn't "hot" per say.

No. It's something about where they are getting their produce. Migrant fields are just not very sanitary places. There's no bathrooms, etc. wherever Chipotle gets their produce from has issues clearly.

[Anonymous]

I have a theory about Chipotle and how these issues keep happening: the warming water bath that the hot food bins sit in.

I stopped eating there after I saw the worker grab an empty bin to switch it in with a new one and drip that nasty warming water onto the food bins nearby. And then when he sat the full hot food bin back down, he let it drop and some water splashed out into the meat nearest that bin.

Nope. No thanks. I walked out and haven't been back since.

I told a friend this theory and she watched the next time she went to Chipotle and saw the same thing happening. The guy pulled the empty chicken container out and dripped the warming water on the pico & corn salsas passing it down the line.

My aunt, who is a real chef, doesn't eat at these type places because she said the foods can't be kept at the proper temps. She said the meats are kept warm, which is the perfect breeding temp for bacteria, instead of cooled and then heated with each order or kept very hot to ward off bacteria (that would make the meats tough). If you give her the option of Chipotle or Cava or McDonald's, she'll pick McDonald's because while their food is worse tasting, it's kept at proper temps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a theory about Chipotle and how these issues keep happening: the warming water bath that the hot food bins sit in.

I stopped eating there after I saw the worker grab an empty bin to switch it in with a new one and drip that nasty warming water onto the food bins nearby. And then when he sat the full hot food bin back down, he let it drop and some water splashed out into the meat nearest that bin.

Nope. No thanks. I walked out and haven't been back since.

I told a friend this theory and she watched the next time she went to Chipotle and saw the same thing happening. The guy pulled the empty chicken container out and dripped the warming water on the pico & corn salsas passing it down the line.

My aunt, who is a real chef, doesn't eat at these type places because she said the foods can't be kept at the proper temps. She said the meats are kept warm, which is the perfect breeding temp for bacteria, instead of cooled and then heated with each order or kept very hot to ward off bacteria (that would make the meats tough). If you give her the option of Chipotle or Cava or McDonald's, she'll pick McDonald's because while their food is worse tasting, it's kept at proper temps.

I think this is an excellent theory.

[Anonymous]

Anyone notice that their used to be more supervisors on shift at these kind of places? Now I see none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder how Chiptole is so much more susceptible than other restaurants.

These were the most common foods responsible for transmitting each of the pathogens:

E. Coli

Beef: 46 percent
Vegetable row crops: 36 percent
Salmonella

Seeded vegetables: 18 percent
Fruit: 12 percent
Eggs: 12 percent
Chicken: 10 percent
Beef: 9 percent
Pork: 8 percent
Sprouts: 8 percent
Campylobacter

Dairy: 66 percent
Chicken: 8 percent
Listeria

Fruit: 50 percent
Dairy: 31 percent
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/the-most-common-sources-of-food-poisoning/386570/

This was a norovirus. I think jack in the box had problems with this ...and you know cruise ships...

Norovirus is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food in the United States.

The virus can easily contaminate food because it is very tiny and infective. It only takes a very small amount of virus particles (as few as 18) to make someone sick.

Food can get contaminated with norovirus when:

infected people who have stool or vomit on their hands touch the food,
it is placed on counters or surfaces that have infectious stool or vomit on them, or
tiny drops of vomit from an infected person spray through the air and land on the food.
Foods can also be contaminated at their source. For example:

oysters that are harvested from contaminated water, or
fruit and vegetables that are contaminated in the field.


It is very strange to have this many outbreaks. It's almost like someone is planting the virus. I wonder if they have done a DNA test on the virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone notice that their used to be more supervisors on shift at these kind of places? Now I see none.

Right after they did their big reopening after correcting their issues from before, they had a food safety person on the line, I noticed. I was in two separate locations and they both had them. They were there to remind the workers to change gloves after touching different items or touching a non-food item. They made sure the guys grilling used different tongs for chicken, steak, and the other proteins. The one location had a bin of digital thermometers and the food safety guy kept checking temps on the hot and cold items.

I saw them for maybe a month after and nothing now. I picked up food from Chipotle for co-workers and I saw the guy grilling chicken touch the raw chicken with his gloved hand to toss it on the grill, then touch the tongs to re-position the chicken on the grill with his raw chicken gloved hands. Once he had the chicken all set, he pulled off his gloves and put new ones on and kept using the same tongs that his raw chicken hands had touched. So after touching the tongs that had raw chicken on the handle with his clean gloves, he picked up the clean metal bins that the cooked chicken would go in and moved it all around in his area to the cutting station. I told the one line person that he'd touched raw chicken and then the tongs and then switched gloves, but they didn't understand what I was saying (language barrier; I didn't know the Spanish word for raw or contamination.). The guy behind me was like, "I'm glad I'm getting some of this chicken and not THAT chicken ha ha ha" and I'm just like, ummm, because you don't think he's made that mistake more than once today??