Chipotle Mexican Grill’s food safety woes have struck again.
Shares of the burrito chain plunged as much as 7.5 percent following a report that the burrito joint closed its Sterling, Va. location after at least 13 customers became ill after eating there between July 14 and July 15.
Chipotle said in a statement that it notified local health officials and closed the Sterling location Monday to sanitize it. The restaurant will reopen Tuesday.
“The reported symptoms are consistent with norovirus,”Jim Marsden, Chipotle’s head of food safety said in the statement, signaling that the problem stemmed from and was limited to poor sanitation at the Sterling location. “Norovirus does not come from our food supply, and it is safe to eat at Chipotle,”
Chipotle shares were off $23.43, or 5.7 percent, at $369.57, in midday trades.
Several of the complaints, which were first reported by Business Insider, initially appeared Monday on the site iwaspoisoned.com. Customers reported a mix of diarrhea, nausea, fever and vomiting.
One customer wrote “this is worst that I have ever seen,” after reporting that their daughter and friends visited the chain on Friday.
By Saturday, one of the friends was in the emergency room, according to the customer’s post on the site. On Sunday, another member of the group went to the hospital for “dehydration, nausea, pain.”
Less than two years ago Chipotle had an E.coli scare in which dozens of customers in 14 states became sick. The Food and Drug Administration announced in February 2016 that the outbreak appeared to be over.
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