Key takeaways:
- At least 110 people in Minnesota have been sickened in a salmonella outbreak linked to Mexican-style restaurants, with jalapeños suspected as the vehicle.
- Minnesota officials interviewed 84 sickened people; 89% reported eating at Chipotle between June 14 and July 14, while others ate at other Mexican-style restaurants.
- The FDA began investigating multiple ingredients tied to the salmonella outbreak on July 22, and the jalapeño supplier has not been publicly named.
Chipotle has removed jalapeños from its restaurants after the peppers were identified as a suspected source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 110 people in Minnesota, the company said Tuesday.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we proactively removed the jalapenos from our restaurants and replaced them with product from different growers,” Chipotle said in a statement, adding that it was cooperating with public health authorities. NBC News reported that the company removed the peppers from restaurants across the country, while The Guardian reported the action affected some of the chain’s restaurants.
Jalapeños are used in several Chipotle menu items, including chili-corn salsa, pico de gallo and guacamole. The company said it began tracing ingredients through its supply chain after learning of a potential outbreak and identified jalapeños from a common lot as a possible source.
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 people sickened in the outbreak. Among them, 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 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 officials, Chipotle nor the FDA have named other states with suspected cases, and the supplier of the jalapeños has not been named. The Minnesota Department of Health said Chipotle has cooperated throughout the investigation by providing records and product information and by removing the identified jalapeños from 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.”
Medus said she expects the case count to rise even if illnesses are not new because of the time it takes to detect cases.
Chipotle shares fell 7% in Tuesday afternoon trading, The Guardian reported.
The salmonella outbreak is separate from a larger outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness, that has affected nine states. The cyclosporiasis outbreak has sickened more than 6,700 people nationwide, including two people in Michigan who died, according to The Guardian. NBC News reported that the outbreak has sickened thousands of people in nine states and that two deaths have been reported.
The FDA linked the cyclosporiasis outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell from supplier Taylor Farms de Mexico, while The Guardian reported the lettuce came from Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico and that authorities are still looking for other potential sources.
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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