LOS ANGELES -- Chipotle closed all of its U.S. restaurants for part of the day Monday so its employees could attend a companywide meeting to discuss food safety changes and staff members could ask questions.
All restaurants of the Denver-based burrito chain were to reopen at 3 p.m. in their respective time zones. As of December, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. had 1,971 locations across the nation.
At least one company jumped to capitalize on Chipotle's brief nationwide shutdown. On Monday morning, food delivery service Seamless sent an email to its customers announcing that it can come through with other Mexican food choices "when certain restaurants are closed (you know who)."
Chipotle's sales have slumped after two E. coli outbreaks were tied to its restaurants. In November, Chipotle temporarily closed 43 restaurants in Washington state and Oregon after 22 cases were linked to its eateries. Those locations have since reopened.
In December, there was a second, smaller outbreak of E. coli tied to Chipotle restaurants. A total of five people were affected in Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma.
Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the two outbreaks tied to the chain appeared to be over. The CDC said it was closing its investigation, though it was unable to determine a food or ingredient responsible for the contamination.
In December, the company took another hit when 141 Boston College students were reported to have contracted norovirus after eating at a nearby Chipotle restaurant.
Chipotle was also subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in connection with a criminal investigation conducted by the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations.
As part of the subpoena, Chipotle was asked to show documents relating to a norovirus outbreak in August at a Los Angeles-area restaurant. Chipotle has said it will fully cooperate in the investigation.
The scope of the investigation was expanded last month: Chipotle was served with another subpoena, this one requiring it to provide additional documents and information related to its food safety dating back to January 2013.
During the meeting Monday, Chipotle officials said the company will start a program aimed at helping suppliers maintain food-safety standards.
Chipotle is spending as much as $10 million to fund the effort, co-Chief Executive Officer Steve Ells said. The money will be used to help local farmers offset the costs of new tests and food-safety protocols, he said.
"The money will be used to provide safety support and education that's necessary to meet our standards," he said in a clip that was broadcast via the Periscope app.
Chipotle, which has long promised to source local food, had previously said some of its smaller suppliers wouldn't be able to meet the new safety standards. Chipotle has also changed how it prepares some of its ingredients.
Information for this article was contributed by Samantha Masunaga of the Los Angeles Times and Craig Giammona of Bloomberg News.
Business on 02/09/2016