A Chipotle Mexican Grill in
Seattle has been closed by health officials for repeated food safety
violations.
Public Health-Seattle and King
County said in a news release Thursday it closed the restaurant in the South
Lake Union neighborhood for violations on three different visits.
An inspection report shows the
violations stem from failing to keep ingredients hot enough, which officials
say can contribute to foodborne illness.
Chipotle has had food-safety
issues on both the West and East coast of the United States. Last week more
than 160 students in Boston fell sick after dining at a Chipotle outlet. Novovirus
was eventually identified as the culprit.
E. coli was the issue on the West
coast where 43 outlets in Washington and Oregon closed.
It has a number of stores in Ontario and 1,700 world-wide, including Europe.
Throughout the food-safety issues,
the chain continued to advertise and promote itself as a socially-responsible
vendor better than fast-food competitors, such as McDonalds.
It has banned GMOs, has announced
animal welfare standards such as refusing to buy pork if the sows were housed
in gestation crates and eggs from hens housed in crates and said it won’t serve
meats from farms that continue to use antibiotics.
Here's what Wikipedia says: The company has released a mission statement called Food with Integrity, which highlights its efforts in using organic ingredients,[7] and serves more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant chain
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold
told The Associated Press in an e-mail they are looking into the cause of the
violation in Seattle and will address it.
Dr. Doug Powell, whose doctorate
is in food safety communications, has been highly critical of Chipotle’s
failure to implement effective food safety measures.
