Chipotle Criticized for Latest E. coli, Norovirus Crisis Response

Some say the chain hasn’t been effective in communicating its response or plans to prevent future foodborne illnesses.

December 10, 2015

NEW YORK – Chipotle’s foodborne illness crisis is being handled “all wrong,” according to some PR professionals, reports CNBC.

Since October 31, Chipotle has been faced with two incidents. First, an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people in multiple states; and the more recent occurrence at a Boston College area location, where health officials confirmed a foodborne illness sickened more than 120 students with symptoms of the norovirus, reports the news source.

In response, Chipotle temporarily shut down some affected locations, added more stringent food safety initiatives and extensive ingredient testing. However, notes the news source, crisis management professionals are saying that Chipotle’s response isn’t adequate.

"They're not going far enough," Gene Grabowski, who runs the crisis group at kglobal, told CNBC. "They're not painting pictures with their words. The real problem is they're playing defense. A key is to go on the offensive.”

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold responded to the criticism: "I think it's very easy to armchair quarterback these things and say a company should have done this, or could have done that better," he said in an email to CNBC. "The fact is, since this incident began, we have taken swift and decisive actions to limit the spread of [E. coli], offered our sincerest apologies to people who have been affected, worked diligently with health officials to investigate, been extremely transparent and forthcoming with new information at every turn, retained nationally renowned food safety experts to work with us to reassess our practices with an eye to making improvements in any way we can, and shared details of an enhanced food safety plan to be sure our food and our restaurants are as safe as possible going forward."

During a conference call this week, the news source notes that Chipotle said it is planning to “double down” on outreach after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially declares that the outbreak is over. Then the chain will use full-page newspaper letters, interviews, direct mail and social media to inform customers about changes it implemented and encourage them to revisit locations.

DXagency CEO Sandy Rubinstein gave Chipotle's handling of the crisis a C-, telling CNBC that she doesn’t think Chipotle has “done anything well.” She added that the company’s response hasn’t been “digestible” for the public and that the response should be communicating how Chipotle plans to handle ingredients.

Chipotle's uphill battle intensified with the Boston outbreak, said Michael Gordon, CEO of Group Gordon. He told the news source that Chipotle should be very clear on how it’s fixing the problems and mitigating the possibility of future incidents. "If they communicated now how they're going to do things differently, the proof will be in the burrito. Words can only go so far. The other piece is the actions need to match it," he said.

Chipotle's Arnold told CNBC the company will “continue to be transparent as this moves forward to resolution and as we continue to implement changes to make our restaurants better when this is over. And we will absolutely look at everything we have done and see how we can make our incident response plans better."

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