|
 David Acheson, a former official at the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was brought
on as an adviser, Chipotle told Reuters.
The company also confirmed it is working with David Theno, a food
safety consultant and former Jack in the Box executive who is
credited with fixing food safety at the fast-food chain following a
deadly E. coli outbreak in the 1990s.
The two are respected among food safety experts, and their
involvement may signal an expansion in Chipotle's reforms. But the
scope is not yet clear.
Spokesman Chris Arnold confirmed the consultants were retained last
year but would not say when or detail their duties. As recently as
early December, Acheson was sharply critical of the company's
initial response to the outbreaks.
In March, the company announced it had hired James Marsden, a former
meat science professor at Kansas State University, as executive
director of food safety. Arnold said Marsden would have "primary
responsibility for our food safety programs."
Expanding its complement of food safety experts is part of
Chipotle's effort to rebound from a spate of disease outbreaks -
including E. coli, salmonella and norovirus - last year that crushed
sales, repulsed customers and slashed $6 billion off its market
valuation.
Chipotle's ability to win back diners is vital to reviving sales and
is expected to be a key topic at the company’s annual meeting on
Wednesday.
"We have committed to establishing Chipotle as an industry leader in
food safety, and we have assembled an extremely capable team to help
us achieve that goal," Arnold told Reuters.
Chipotle declined to make members of the team available for for
interviews.
"If I had to put together a dream team to fix something, you could
do a lot worse,” said Don Schaffner, a food science professor at
Rutgers University. But, he added: "I’ve begun to wonder a little
bit about too many cooks. Each of those guys is going to have a
perspective on what to do to fix the problem."
Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the
University of Georgia, said he expected the group's focus "would
likely be more on food safety preventive controls and less on food
testing."
Chipotle's initial response emphasized testing ingredients for
pathogens with the goal of stopping any source of illness from
getting into its restaurants. The company touted a testing regime
set up by another consultant, Mansour Samadpour, chief executive of
IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group.
Acheson criticized the Chipotle for relying too heavily on that one
approach. "I'm not a believer that you can test your way to safety,”
he told Reuters in early December.
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At the time, he said the focus should be on improving food sourcing
and handling practices, including how suppliers are approved, “how
they are leveraged in terms of training, storing, handling, and
preparing of food."
Arnold said Chipotle continues to work with the IEH testing firm.
Its more recent changes have focused on food preparation. For
instance, Chipotle said on its latest earnings call that it had
started blanching bell peppers in an effort to kill germs.
The chain also has cut some small suppliers. Kenter Canyon Farms
said it lost business providing oregano to Chipotle through a
third-party distributor.
“When that whole scandal happened with the E. coli, when they
revamped their food safety. They cut ties with a lot of growers,”
said Mark Lopez, sales director for the farm.
Chipotle also began buying more red onions from Oregon-based River
Point Farms, which said it is the country’s largest onion supplier,
a source involved in the situation said.
The goal was to make it easier for Chipotle to trace the origins of
the products, according to the source, who did not want to be
identified. River Point declined to comment.
Chipotle's Arnold said the chain would continue to support smaller
farms, and has committed to spending $10 million to help them meet
its standards. But he said the company has noted that it may be
difficult for "some of our smaller suppliers to meet our heightened
food safety standards."
Big chains - including Yum Brands Inc <YUM.N>, the parent of Taco
Bell and KFC, and McDonald's Corp - tend to work with a small number
of large suppliers, which often have more resources and controls.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein, Tom Polansek and Julie Steenhuysen;
Editing By Peter Henderson and Lisa Girion)
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