(Bloomberg) — Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is facing new questions about its food-safety procedures in Seattle, a sign the restaurant chain may have a hard time bouncing back from recent E. coli and norovirus outbreaks.
The city shut down a Chipotle in the South Lake Union neighborhood on Thursday after multiple inspections found it failed to keep food hot enough. The health department also gave unsatisfactory scores to nine of the 17 Chipotle restaurants in the Seattle area—even though the company previously closed the locations to revamp their food-handling standards.
The findings raise broader concerns about Chipotle's procedures for keeping food safe, a critical challenge as the company tries to restore its reputation. Seattle may provide the best window into its practices because all the restaurants in the area were closed and reopened in the wake of an E. coli outbreak. Despite the company deep-cleaning the restaurants and hiring a food-safety consultant, most of them are still getting subpar marks from local officials.
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