Chipotle to pay record fine after tainted food made 1,100 people sick, DOJ says

Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay a record-setting $25 million fine for foodborne illness outbreaks it allegedly caused between 2015 and 2018 that made more than 1,100 people sick across the country, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

The $25 million is the largest criminal fine in the history of food safety cases, the department said in a release.

Chipotle also agreed to follow an “improved food safety program,” which will allow the company to avoid conviction, so long as it doesn’t deviate from it.

“Chipotle failed to ensure that its employees both understood and complied with its food safety protocols, resulting in hundreds of customers across the country getting sick,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna for the Central District of California. “Today’s steep penalty, coupled with the tens of millions of dollars Chipotle already has spent to upgrade its food safety program since 2015, should result in greater protections for Chipotle customers and remind others in the industry to review and improve their own health and safety practices.”

In the case built against Chipotle, the restaurant chain “was implicated in at least five foodborne illness outbreaks between 2015 and 2018 connected to restaurants in the Los Angeles area, Boston, Virginia, and Ohio,” according to the release.

The company agreed that the findings were true and resulted from improper food handling and storage.

Hundreds were sickened, with norovirus in some cases, and in others by a bacterium called Clostridium perfringens.

According to the release, employees reported that they didn’t receive adequate food safety training, were understaffed, and even were pressured to work while sick.

“The FDA will hold food companies accountable when they endanger the public’s health by purveying adulterated food that causes outbreaks of illness,” said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D. “We will continue to investigate and bring to justice any company whose food products present a health hazard to consumers.”