Chipotle Pulls Jalapeños As Minnesota Salmonella Outbreak Widens To 15 States; Shares Tumble

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) shares fell sharply Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that the chain had removed jalapeños from Minnesota restaurants over a suspected link to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 110 people in the state – while WaPo reports that the outbreak has spread to 15 states. Chipotle stock fell as much as 8.5% against Monday’s close – some outlets clocked the low nearer 9% – and was trading roughly 7% lower in the afternoon.

Chipotle pulled the packs of (potentially) poopy peppers from every store that received them and swapped in product from other growers. Laurie Schalow, the company’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, framed the move as proactive, taken after Chipotle learned of a potential salmonella problem in a supply chain serving multiple food-service retailers.

The epidemiological signal is strong: of 84 sickened people interviewed, 75 said they had eaten at a Chipotle. Illness onsets trace to meals between June 14 and July 14. Minnesota’s health department said the chain has cooperated fully – providing records and taking preventive steps – and that it is no longer concerned about Chipotle specifically now that the peppers are out of its restaurants.

The FDA posted its investigation on July 22 tied to 212 people. Minnesota said federal authorities are running a traceback on produce – including but not limited to jalapeños – potentially contaminated with Salmonella Javiana.

Bloomberg also reports that Michigan health officials were in contact with Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands about the cyclospora outbreak in early July, weeks before Taco Bell publicly alerted consumers. MDHHS held a call with Yum on July 2, per documents obtained through a public records request, and in a follow-up email asked to reach the company’s supply-chain quality assurance and communications teams to discuss interventions or notifications that could reduce future cases.

Michigan advised businesses handling raw produce to take extra precautions on July 4, and a state rapid response team pressed Taco Bell again for documents on July 6, citing the pace and scale of illness. Taco Bell didn’t confirm publicly until July 14 that it had removed limited ingredients at select restaurants, saying at the time that no link to the chain, an ingredient or a supplier had been confirmed. Federal authorities didn’t publicly connect Taco Bell to the outbreak until July 17.

Shitty Situation

Cyclosporiasis cases nationwide have topped 18,000 across 45 states since May 1, of which the CDC has laboratory-confirmed 6,707, with 423 hospitalizations and more than 11,500 still under investigation. Only a slice of that is Taco Bell’s: the CDC has 1,644 sick people who reported eating there, and says plainly it is chasing other cyclospora outbreaks that have nothing to do with this one. Michigan is the epicenter either way, with more than 11,000 cases and the outbreak’s only two deaths, both in people the state said had significant underlying conditions.

That timeline is the relevant backdrop for how the market read today’s Chipotle news. Chipotle’s disclosure posture – pull first, say so publicly, cooperate on the record – is the opposite of what the Michigan documents describe, and Minnesota’s health department went out of its way to say the chain is not its concern. The stock fell 8.5% anyway.