Chipotle is far from the first major fast food chain to have to deal with the fiasco of a nationwide E. coli outbreak, and they are almost certainly not the last. The fear that the news of the outbreak caused, however, has pushed many customers away from the chain and brought about major issues of trust.
While the chain is assuring customers that they are doing everything in their power to find the source of the outbreak and eliminate it, they have been unsuccessful so far in finding the original source, leaving some customers unwilling to return.
“Before the news of the outbreak I would eat at Chipotle regularly,” freshman Isabella Moutinho said. “After the first case of E. coli was made public I was a little bit scared but didn’t think much about it and continued to eat there. After the second case was made public I realized that this could potentially happen anywhere and to anyone. I haven’t eaten at Chipotle since then.”
The outbreak caused more than 350 people in nine states to fall ill, but with promotions giving away free food last week, some people are more than willing to give Chipotle a second chance.
“The recent outbreak hasn’t affected my trust of the company, and I will continue to eat there on a regular basis,” junior Ian McDonald said. “I’m always a fan of free burritos, and that might be what it takes to win back a lot of customers.”
The company itself has suffered from dwindling sales as its stock value fell by 46 percent following news of the outbreak, but the company is implementing new processes that they believe will regain customers’ trust.
After news of the outbreak, Chipotle contracted a food safety company IEH Laboratories to develop new protocols that they believe will reassure customers.
“I am happy to report that our proposed program was adopted in its entirety, without any modification,” IEH Laboratories CEO Mansour Samadpour said in a public statement. “While it is never possible to completely eliminate all risk, this program eliminates or mitigates risk to a level near zero, and will establish Chipotle as the industry leader in this area.”
For Moutinho, however, Chipotle still has a ways to go in order to regain her trust.
“I love Chipotle and I am really sad that something like this has happened there but it has definitely made me lose a little bit of trust in the company,” Moutinho said. “If this is happening now nothing is stopping it from happening next year too. The decision to close all restaurants today for cleaning and training was a step in the right direction. It made me feel a little bit better about eating there because it shows that the company really cares about its customers.”
As scientists continue to search for the root cause of the outbreak, some have suggested that Chipotle’s all-organic ingredients might have made their food more susceptible to diseases. Yet McDonald says that this does not deter him from eating at the restaurant.
“I don’t think there’s an issue with foods that have not been given antibiotics,” McDonald said. “As long as the company makes an attempt to inform the public of potential risks while eating their food. The same goes for food that is treated with antibiotics.”