Chipotle to Enforce Stricter Produce Supplier Rules amid E. coli Outbreak

By Cheri Cheng - 03 Dec '15 17:09PM

Chipotle Mexican Grill will be revamping its guidelines in regards to its produce suppliers after the restaurant chain was linked to the E. coli outbreak that sickened nearly 50 people from six different states.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked 45 cases of food poisoning to Chipotle restaurants in Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota, New York and Ohio.

The company's spokesman, Chris Arnold, revealed that the company will adopt stricter guidelines, which will unfortunately mean that Chipotle will not be able to rely heavily on local produce.

"We have elevated requirements for all of our produce suppliers (chiefly in the area of testing of ingredients) and we are not sure that all of the current local suppliers will be able to meet those elevated protocols," Arnold said in an email to BloombergBusiness.

In an email to Fortune, Arnold also revealed that the details surrounding the new guidelines will be announced "in the coming days."

Although the new guidelines are being adopted for the purpose of food safety, they do represent a huge move for Chipotle, a company that is known for picking local and fresher ingredients. In 2008, Chipotle started a local program to source from local farmers as opposed to factories.

Arnold noted that the local program typically runs from June to October so technically speaking, the program is currently not in session.

According to Bloomberg, shares for the company have fallen by 11 percent in October and by 9.5 percent in November. More recently on Wednesday, Chipotle dropped one percent in New York.