When last we discussed the recently announced outbreak of E. Coli illnesses tied to chicken salad sold at Costco, the sick customers had been limited to four states — Washington, Colorado, Utah, and Montana. Last night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the outbreak is more widespread, sickening Costco customers on both coasts. [More]
e coli
Costco Pulls Chicken Salad In Western States Over E. Coli Concerns
By 11.24.15
After linking a number of cases of E. coli poisoning back to chicken salad bought at Costco, the warehouse chain has pulled the product from its shelves in the western portion of the U.S. [More]
Stock Analysts Believe That Chipotle Sales Will Be Down This Quarter For Some Reason
By 11.23.15
Are people heading somewhere other than Chipotle when a burrito craving strikes them? Stock analysts think so: while the company won’t release their fourth-quarter sales results for another few months, the after-effects of what is now a six-state E. coli outbreak will keep at least some customers out of restaurants for the immediate future. Especially if the chain and public health officials aren’t able to figure out what caused the outbreak. [More]
Chipotle E. Coli Outbreak Has Now Spread To 6 States, Cause Still Not Known
By 11.20.15
On Halloween, Chipotle temporarily closed their restaurants in the Seattle and Portland, Oregon metropolitan areas, saying that they were protecting the public from an E. coli outbreak that had been linked to eating at Chipotle, but not to any particular food. This week, the story of this outbreak became stranger as the same strain of bacteria was found in people who had eaten at Chipotle restaurants in four other states. Wait… wasn’t this a regional outbreak? [More]
Closed Northwestern Chipotle Restaurants Will Start Opening On Wednesday
By 11.10.15
If you live near in Seattle or Portland and have been pining for a Chipotle burrito since all local restaurants shut down on Halloween due to an E. coli outbreak of undetermined origin, your week and a half of patience has been rewarded. The restaurants are reopening this week. [More]
Chipotle Still Doesn’t Know Which Ingredient Caused E. Coli Contamination In 8 Restaurants
By 11.5.15
While Chipotle continues to deep-clean its restaurants in the Seattle and Portland metropolitan areas after an E. coli outbreak that has now sickened 39 people, the company and public health authorities are still working to find a common link between what all of the infected people ate. They may never find the exact cause: some foodborne illness outbreaks remain unsolved. [More]
Chipotle Is Deep-Cleaning Closed Northwestern Restaurants
By 11.4.15
Here’s the thing with stocking your restaurant with fresh, additive-free ingredients: processing food and adding things like preservatives has an actual purpose, and that purpose is to eliminate or slowt he growth of food-borne pathogens. While their fresh-ingredients stance is an important part of Chipotle’s marketing, it’s also a handy way for nasty food-borne pathogens to sneak in. [More]
Health Officials Suspect Chipotle E. Coli Outbreak Came From Vegetables
By 11.3.15
On Halloween, Chipotle closed 43 of their restaurants in Washington state and Oregon, “out of an abundance of caution” after people who had dined at six different Chipotle restaurants showed symptoms of E. coli infection. The restaurants remain closed while Chipotle and public health authorities figure out where the illness came from. Their preliminary declaration is that the bacteria hitched a ride on some vegetables. [More]
Nearly 168,000 Pounds Of Ground Beef Recalled For E. Coli Contamination
By 11.2.15
Adding a few ingredients to ground beef can make for a delicious meal, but there’s nothing tasty about the addition of E. coli in your meat. For that reason, an Omaha company is recalling nearly 168,000 pounds of beef. [More]
43 Chipotle Restaurants In Oregon And Washington State Close Due To E. Coli Outbreak
By 10.31.15
There’s a promotion at Chipotle tonight where people who wear costumes that include something extra, or a scary “unnecessary additive,” get burritos for $3. Yet restaurants in two states have closed today “out of an abundance of caution” because of something even scarier: an apparent outbreak of Shiga toxin E. coli in recent weeks at six restaurants in Oregon and Washington. [More]
4 Children Who Visited Dairy Festival Now Sick From E. Coli
By 4.29.15
When you visit animals at a fair or a petting zoo, there are usually hand-washing or hand sanitizer stations at every entrance and exit. There’s a very good reason why these exist. That’s been proven in Washington state, where a handful of first-graders are sick from E. coli, a potentially dangerous pathogen that’s transmitted in, um, poop. [More]
Foods That Make People Sick With E. Coli: Beef, Plants Grown In Rows
By 2.25.15
There are three different agencies in the federal government that handle different types of foodborne illnesses and separate aspects of those illnesses. While two outbreaks might be caused by the same pathogen, which agency handles them depends on whether the food contains meat or not. This is sort of inefficient. [More]
Ranchers Legacy Meat Co. Recalls 1,200 Pounds Of Ground Beef Over E.Coli Contamination
By 11.24.14
Sure, it’s Thanksgiving week and we’re all preparing to devour our fair share of turkey. But some consumers prefer a main dish that’s a little more beefy. If you’re part of that camp, you might want to check the label after a Minnesota firm recalled ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli. [More]
Consumer Reports Finds Potentially Harmful Bacteria All Over Chicken Breasts
By 12.19.13
While hundreds of people around the country were getting sick from the recent salmonella outbreak, our co-workers at Consumer Reports just happened to be looking into the tiny life forms clinging to that popular poultry offering, the chicken breast. The results — that potentially harmful bacteria are lurking on and in almost every single chicken breast for sale at the supermarket — may not shock you, but they do highlight the growing concern over everything from what chickens are fed to how their meat is handled and prepared. [More]
Salads And Wraps Recalled From Walgreens, Whole Foods, And Trader Joe’s
By 11.12.13
The bad news is that 181,620 pounds of chicken and ham salads sold in popular retail outlets like Walgreens, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s has been recalled due to possible contamination with E. coli bacteria. The good news, if such a thing is possible, is that this isn’t yet another iteration of the massive and scary Foster Farms salmonella recall from last month. [More]
We Are In The Era Of “Nightmare” Bacteria And Nobody Seems To Care
By 10.22.13 — Updated: 7.17.14
On March 5, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control issued a press released titled “Lethal, Drug Resistant Bacteria Spreading in U.S. Healthcare Facilities.” The warning that followed was dire. Drug-resistant organisms called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, were not only spreading more rapidly through U.S. hospitals, they were becoming more resistant to so-called “last-resort” antibiotics. “CRE are nightmare bacteria,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. How nightmarish? According to data from the CDC, 1 in 2 patients who contract a bloodstream CRE infection will die. That’s an ominous statistic, but it might not even be the scariest fact about CRE. [More]
Mexican Restaurant: Sorry We Gave You Bloody Diarrhea. Please Come Back, Have A Free Burrito!
By 9.13.13
Much like a customer might be wary of returning to say, the Carnival Triumph aka Poop Cruise, we can’t imagine many of the 74 diners who endured bloody diarrhea after eating at Federico’s Mexican Food will be tempted to cross that restaurant’s threshold any time soon. But that isn’t stopping the eatery from begging people to return in the form of free burrito bribery. [More]
11 Tons Of Maybe Contaminated Ground Beef Recalled In Midwest And South
By 6.21.13
National Beef in Kansas shipped out 22,737 pounds of beef (about 11 tons) that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a nasty strain that’s particularly dangerous to the elderly. Meat from the affected packages may have ended up at retailers and food service establishments in eleven different states. [More]
