Chipotle Stocks Plunge After Another Food Contamination Scandal Surfaces

Chipotle stocks have suffered a major blow as another food contamination case involving 120 people, most of them students at Boston College, surfaced. The popular fast-food chain prides itself with serving "Food With Integrity."

A report with NPR said that out of this number included eight members of the Boston college's basketball team. The basketball team is scheduled to play Providence on Wednesday evening. As of today, it is unclear if the students are well enough to push through with the scheduled game. Most of the students who were reported sick said that they ate at a nearby Chipotle Mexican Grill.

This latest food contamination case had provoked further suspicions of a similar incident of an earlier E.coli poisoning outbreak that the Pacific Northwest traced to some Chipotle restaurants in the area. However, upon further investigation, it appears that the two food poisoning outbreaks are unrelated. According to tests, students from Boston College were brought down by novirus.

According to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, norovirus is often overlooked. Unlike E.coli or salmonella, it is less likely to kill victims. Novirus remains to be the most common source of foodborne illness.

Chipotle has since then closed the restaurant located near Boston College while the investigation is ongoing. Government health inspectors have already fined the company for allowing an employee to work while sick last week. While the employee's sickness was not specified, norovirus is a highly contagious disease and is usually spread from person to person.

A report with Daily News reported that Chipotle shares have continued declining since Monday as the fast-food company faces its first drop in a key sales figure after reports of an outbreak of E. coli was linked to its restaurants. Chipotle's stock was reported to be down by 3.5 percent at $541.53 on midday trading Monday.

Jeffrey Bernstein, a financial analyst from Barclays, said that numerous fast-food chains have managed to recover from similar food poisoning related scandals in the past. However, he noted that Chipotle's recovery might take a little longer given the rise of social media. 

Chipotle said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, their sales have been "extremely volatile" as of late. The restaurant chain has closed restaurants in Oregon and Washington in early November because of the E.coli outbreak. Sales were reported to have plummeted by as much as 22 percent. Additional cases have since then been reported, and were down as much as 16 percent in November.