SEATTLE (AP) – Chipotle is preparing to reopen its restaurants in the Pacific Northwest after an E. coli outbreak sickened about 45 people, a high-profile example of foodborne illnesses that are more common than the public realizes, health experts say.
Forty-three outposts of the Mexican food chain in Washington state and the Portland, Oregon, area have been closed since the end of October because of the outbreak that hospitalized more than a dozen people.
That’s a tiny fraction of about 48 million cases of foodborne disease that occur in the U.S. each year, sending about 105,000 people to the hospital and resulting in 2,000 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about one in seven people in the country getting sick from food every year.
Many of the illnesses involve people eating at home, but restaurant-related outbreaks are fairly common, said Dr. Paul Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases at Oregon’s state health agency.
“Screw-ups can occur in any kitchen, but obviously it’s more dramatic when it occurs in a kitchen that serves 5,000 people,” said Cieslak, who has helped investigate the E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle.