RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Chipotle said Tuesday it had removed jalapeños from its restaurants across the country after they were suspected in a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 110 people in Minnesota. “Out of an abundance of caution, we proactively removed the jalapeños from our restaurants and replaced them with product from different growers,” Chipotle said in a statement. Jalapeños are in a number of menu items at the restaurant chain, including chili-corn salsa, pico de gallo and guacamole. Carlota Medus, a senior epidemiologist supervisor in the Minnesota Department of Health Foodborne Disease Unit, said the outbreak is linked to Mexican-style restaurants. “Jalapeños are suspected as the vehicle,” Medus said. State officials interviewed 84 of the people sickened in the outbreak; among those, 89% reported eating at Chipotle between June 14 and July 14. The remaining people reported eating at a variety of other Mexican-style restaurants. “Based on all the evidence so far, the food that made people sick was served at other restaurants as well,” Medus said. The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that it began investigating “multiple ingredients” tied to the outbreak on July 22. Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, said: “The jalapeños in question were sent to several food service retailers across multiple states.” Neither Minnesota, Chipotle nor the FDA have named other states with suspected cases. The supplier of the jalapeños has not been named. The Minnesota Department of Health said Chipotle has been cooperative throughout the investigation, providing records and information about the products they receive at their restaurant, in addition to removing the identified jalapeños from all restaurants that receive the product. “Given the measures Chipotle put in place, we are not concerned about Chipotle,” Medus said, “but it is possible that the outbreak is ongoing if the contaminated food item is being served elsewhere.” She added that she expects the case count to rise even if illnesses are not new, because of the time it takes to detect the cases. The outbreak comes as states are seeing an explosion of cases from another foodborne illness, cyclosporiasis. That outbreak has been tied to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell from supplier Taylor Farms de Mexico, and has sickened thousands of people in nine states. Two deaths have been reported. On July 17, Chipotle said in response to a now-deleted post on X that “shredded iceberg lettuce is not served in our restaurants. Our romaine lettuce and Supergreens salad mix are not sourced from Mexico.”
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