bake - May 2017 - 16

food safety

Lessons from Chipotle
Since the foodborne illness outbreak of late 2015 that
included 55 cases of E. coli O26 across 11 states followed by
the discovery of norovirus at a Boston-based restaurant that
reportedly sickened 80 customers, officials with Chipotle
Mexican Grill have taken aggressive steps to rebuild its image
and bolster its food safety practices.
One of the ﬁrst and most meaningful reactions was hiring food
safety guru Jim Marsden, Ph.D. as its executive director of food
safety, who teamed with Dale Dexter, Ph.D., manager of food
safety programs, to implement a new system of food safety

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interventions and supplier requirements. Dexter, who was hired

suppliers. "We used to bring raw steak into our restaurants,"

about 17 months ago in the wake of the debacle, discussed

said Dexter, but soon after adopting the technology, the meat

some of the speciﬁcs of the programs during the Food

suppliers were cooking 800,000 pounds of beef per week to

Processing Suppliers Association's Annual Conference in March.

control risks.

After losing billions in sales and stock value in the wake of the

As for the vegetables used in the eateries, blanching is the kill

outbreaks, company founder Steve Ells announced his commit-

step used at each location for now, Dexter said.

ment to making the restaurant chain the safest in the industry,
which included focusing on vulnerabilities in the supply chain,

At each restaurant, two employees are typically scheduled to

training its 65,000 employees and enhancing food safety prac-

come in two hours earlier than the rest of the crew with the

tices at the chain's 2,200 locations, which includes identifying

purpose of immersing avocados, bell peppers, onions, jala-

and preventing norovirus.

peños and citrus fruits in boiling water for ﬁve seconds.

Beyond the ﬁnancial loss related to the illness issues that

The company has also updated its sanitation supplies in the

stemmed back to January 2015, the bigger hit came in the

restaurants, said Dexter, including the use of PURE Bioscience

form of customers who lost trust in the company. "The loyal

Hard Surface cleaner. Chipotle has also partnered with Ecolab

customers who would eat at Chipotle three or four times per

to perform food safety audits and act as coaches on behalf of

week," said Dexter, "we really felt like we let them down."

the company in addition to using the expertise of FoodLogiQ
as part of its Supplier Management and Traceability Program.

Once Marsden was hired, about two months after Dexter

Despite the fact the chain only works with 65 ingredients, said

joined the company, Chipotle was set on a course for a more

Dexter, "you have to be able to track it; it has to be defensible."

vigilant approach to food safety and the accountability of its
suppliers. Initially, they scoured every ingredient and every

Chipotle Mexican Grill also has launched the "As Real as It

process that the chain's suppliers use. Dexter said during his

Gets" advertising campaign created to support the company's

time at suppliers' plants, he focuses largely on process control,

commitment to using only real ingredients. The launch of the

requiring them to demonstrate microbial reduction at each

campaign follows the recent announcement that Chipotle is the

measured step in their process.

only national restaurant brand without added colors, ﬂavors or
preservatives (artiﬁcial or natural) in any of the ingredients it

The duo also adopted technologies to improve the safety of

uses to prepare its food.

food, including using sous-vide cooking of its beef by two

JOEL CR EWS

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