3 Panic in the Kitchen

In the months following the crisis, the company, advised by Samadpour and also Dave Theno, the food-safety expert often credited with saving Jack in the Box after its 1993 E. coli crisis, set about overhauling Chipotle’s approach to food safety. But how would it make improvements without resorting to automation like its rivals? “If food is processed—like canned or frozen—you can reduce the risks of pathogens,” Ells tells me. Chipotle didn’t want to do that.

With customers fleeing (and some who remained, joking, “Can I have my burrito without E. coli?”), Chipotle’s executives prioritized safety at the expense of its food and service. “There was no balance,” Moran says, in reference to the company’s quick decision to outsource some items to its central kitchens that it had long prepared fresh in its restaurants. When I mention Moran’s comment to Ells, he says, “We didn’t have a choice.”

Samadpour assisted Chipotle in instituting a food-safety program designed to keep pathogens out of the food chain altogether. It included what Chipotle called “high-resolution DNA-based testing.” Chipotle evaluated samples of, say, raw beef for genetic markers that it might be unsafe. For every 2,000