Chipotle Quality Crisis

Chipotle Quality Crisis

The Event:

In the year 2015, Chipotle Mexican Grill-the American chain of fast casual restaurants faced major E. coli outbreaks at multiple outlets all over the country. This led to many Chipotle outlets being shut throughout the country, the company’s share prices nosediving and most importantly, the brand name of Chipotle, a chain that was celebrated for offering its patrons a high-quality food experience at affordable prices, being tainted.

The E. coli outbreak first started in October 2015 when it was reported that 22 people had gotten sick after having food at different Chipotle locations, all situated in the states of Washington and Oregon. The Washington health department identified the Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) bacteria as the cause of the outbreak. In early November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of known cases had increased to 50, out of which 14 were hospitalized. On November 20, the CDC reported that the number of states being affected had increased to 6 as cases were reported in Minnesota, New York, California and Ohio. After this update by the CDC, the Chipotle share prices fell by 12 percent. There were reports of a few more cases in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania in the month of December but there were no new cases reported after December 4. The investigation of the E. coli outbreak that was being carried out by CDC was concluded on February 1, 2016 with the final reports suggesting that a total of 55 people had been affected in 11 states.

The E. coli problem was still ongoing when, in the month of December, it was reported that 80 students at Boston College had fallen sick after having food at one Chipotle restaurant. Norovirus was identified as the primary cause by the public health department after the investigation. The Boston Globe reported on December 10 that 141 people had fallen sick as many had contracted the virus from the students who had eaten at Chipotle. The Chipotle outlet where the Norovirus outbreak began, was shut for more than one month. These successive cases of compromise on quality standards and thus endangering the well-being of its loyal customers has dented the credibility that Chipotle had built over the past decade or so.

Causes of quality deterioration:

For many years now Chipotle has had a mission statement called “Food with Integrity”. This statement basically implied that the restaurant chain would try and maximize the use of naturally raised meats, dairy products without any added hormones in them and organic vegetables. A lot of people have attributed Chipotle’s recent woes to their persistence with this mission statement as it has been publically admitted by Chipotle that they may be more susceptible to food borne illness outbreaks due to their use of fresh produce and naturally raised meats rather than frozen stuff and because they are insistent that their employees use traditional methods instead of using automation, unlike most of their fast food competitors.