--- title: Chipotle CEO Apologizes and Vows to 'Be Safest Place to Eat' description: Shares for the company jumped over 5% after Steve Ells' apology. canonical: https://time.com/4144751/chipotle-ceo-apologizes-norovirus-ecoli/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-10T18:27:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:16:53.899Z article:section: Health og:title: Chipotle CEO Apologizes and Vows to 'Be Safest Place to Eat' og:description: Shares for the company jumped more than 5% og:url: https://time.com/4144751/chipotle-ceo-apologizes-norovirus-ecoli/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt463f18ea09f3d474/698874db524fc0a309df5df7/chipotle2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5760 og:image:height: 3240 og:image:alt: CHIPOTLE2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chipotle CEO Apologizes and Vows to 'Be Safest Place to Eat' twitter:description: Shares for the company jumped more than 5% twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt463f18ea09f3d474/698874db524fc0a309df5df7/chipotle2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chipotle CEO Apologizes and Vows to 'Be Safest Place to Eat' > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=894861c5-55f8-4668-a07c-a0d14017a291&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 10, 2015 6:27 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 10, 2015 6:27 PM UTC Chipotle CEO and founder Steve Ells[ apologized to the public](http://www.today.com/news/chipotle-ceo-speaks-out-after-health-scares-will-be-safest-t60746) for the illnesses that have been linked to Chipotle restaurants, and promised that the chain’s safety precautions are now above par. “This was a very unfortunate incident and I’m deeply sorry that this happened, but the procedures we’re putting in place today are so above industry norms that we are going to be the safest place to eat,” Ells said in an interview on the Today Show. Chipotle was first linked to an outbreak of E. coli in the Pacific Northwest, and most recently was deemed responsible for the illness of 120 Boston College students who ate a local Chipotle and became infected with norovirus. Chipotle closed the restaurant voluntarily and says the company is committed to becoming an industry leader for food safety. In the interview, Ells said that if there was a silver lining to the incidents, it’s that the company has now looked very closely at all of its processes and every ingredient. [Reuters reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chipotle-mexican-ecoli-idUSKBN0TT1L120151210?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews#MLAAwEia0cKyRc96.97) that shares for the company jumped over 5% after Ells’ apology. \[[NBC News](http://www.today.com/news/chipotle-ceo-speaks-out-after-health-scares-will-be-safest-t60746)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4144751/chipotle-ceo-apologizes-norovirus-ecoli/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4144751/chipotle-ceo-apologizes-norovirus-ecoli/"},"headline":"Chipotle CEO Apologizes and Vows to 'Be Safest Place to Eat'","datePublished":"2015-12-10T18:27:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:16:53.899Z","description":"Shares for the company jumped more than 5%","url":"https://time.com/4144751/chipotle-ceo-apologizes-norovirus-ecoli/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","Boston","Apology","norovirus","CEO","Chipotle","E. coli"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt463f18ea09f3d474/698874db524fc0a309df5df7/chipotle2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt463f18ea09f3d474/698874db524fc0a309df5df7/chipotle2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CHIPOTLE2","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4144751/chipotle-ceo-apologizes-norovirus-ecoli/","name":"Chipotle CEO Apologizes and Vows to 'Be Safest Place to Eat'"}}]}] ```