This Food Safety Expert Says Chipotle Is 'Focused On Bulls**t'

It’s been six months since the start of Chipotle’s food safety crisis -- a series of six outbreaks that have sickened at least 500 people. The company has apologized for the outbreaks of norovirus and E. coli, tweaked its cooking methods and announced that it will temporarily close all its stores for a companywide food safety meeting on Feb. 8. But with an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still underway, it appears the company still hasn't identified the source of the contamination. Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold pointed The Huffington Post to a Jan. 19 press release announcing that the company’s “comprehensive new food safety programs” are largely already in place, and that it will be sharing information with its employees at the Feb. 8 meeting about what they believe caused the food safety issues. Doug Powell, a former Kansas State University food safety professor and the publisher and editor of Barfblog, a popular food safety blog, isn’t convinced. He's been wary of Chipotle for almost a decade now, and has his doubts that the company's new approach will solve anything. HuffPost recently spoke with Powell about why Chipotle has struggled in its response to the outbreaks -- and what it should be doing instead. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Why is it taking Chipotle so long to figure out the source of this E. coli outbreak, compared to the other food safety issues the...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news