Chipotle reports sick workers at L.A. restaurant; Public Health Department is investigating

Public health workers are looking into a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in Los Angeles after the company reported that employees there were sick.

The company said employees experienced nausea, vomiting and diarrhea at the restaurant at 4550 W. Pico Blvd., according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Some of the sick employees also worked at PizzaRev next door, which does not share facilities with Chipotle. The department is investigating the cause of the illness at both restaurants.

Chipotle is cooperating with the investigation, and none of the chain’s other locations have reported illnesses, the county department said in a statement. PizzaRev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chipotle first learned of the employees’ illness and notified the health department Saturday, restaurant spokesman Chris Arnold said. He said a city health inspector visited the restaurant Monday and conducted a thorough investigation.

Arnold said the restaurant took precautionary measures, such as keeping sick employees home from work for three days after their symptoms ended, discarding food that may have been handled by sick employees and doing extra cleaning and sanitization.

Chipotle has received no reports of ill customers, Arnold said.

The restaurant on Pico remained open Thursday.

Shares of Denver-based Chipotle fell 2.1% to $292.40.

Chipotle has been trying to move forward after outbreaks of illness were linked to its restaurants in 2015, an episode that scared away customers and sent the company’s stock falling.

That summer, norovirus sickened scores of people who had eaten at a Chipotle in Simi Valley. In the fall, dozens of E. coli cases — many of them in Washington and Oregon, but ranging as far as California and New York — were linked to Chipotle restaurants. And in December of that year, 141 Boston College students were reported to have contracted norovirus after eating at a Chipotle in Brighton, Mass.

The chain’s sales dived 30% in December 2015 from the same month a year earlier, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chipotle responded by temporarily closing restaurants, revamping its food-safety procedures and wooing customers back with free meals.

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Twitter: @r_valejandra

UPDATES:

5:30 p.m.: This article was updated to include news that some of the sick Chipotle employees also worked at the neighboring restaurant, PizzaRev.

This article was originally published at 2:30 p.m.