A man in Ohio is pursuing a lawsuit against Chipotle Mexican Grill over experiencing symptoms of food poisoning after he ate at one of the burrito chain’s restaurants. State officials are investigating a possible outbreak of foodborne illness stemming from one Chipotle restaurant in Powell, Ohio.
According to the lawsuit filed in Delaware County, Ohio, plaintiff Filip Syzller experienced nausea, headaches, and hot flashes after purchasing three chicken tacos from the restaurant on July 29th. Syzller is asking for $25,000 in compensation, but he is not alone in his symptoms. Local health officials in Powell have received over 500 calls from people reporting diarrhea, nausea, fever, and other symptoms after eating at Chipotle.
“We have been working with local officials to investigate and will continue to do so,” said Chipotle in a statement to CNBC when asked for a comment on the lawsuit.
While the restaurant had told CNBC that the health department had received only two illness complaints, the next day the Delaware General Health District told CNBC that they had received 518 inquiries related to the outbreak. At that time, the District had also delivered 33 stool samples kits to people who reported they were ill.
Chipotle isn’t the only fast food restaurant in hot water over food contamination. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as of August 2nd about 395 people across 15 states had fallen ill with a parasite called Cyclospora cayetanensis, which contaminated salads sold at McDonald’s locations.
The parasite causes an infection called cyclosporiasis. The symptoms include diarrhea and nausea, and it is considered a less common form of food poisoning. The body rids itself of cyclosporiasis within a few days of exposure in most cases, but sometimes symptoms persist and come in waves for about a month. There are antibiotics that can effectively get rid of the infection faster than the body. In this particular outbreak there have not been any deaths, but 16 people have been hospitalized.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted an investigation that found that shipments of a tainted mix of lettuce and carrots came from Fresh Express, a California-based supplier. The shipments had made their way to about 3,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the Midwest and into customers’ food. McDonald’s has since stopped selling the lettuce from Fresh Express and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a warning about other products that contain their potentially tainted lettuce.
Although the U.S. has a comprehensive legal system to incentivize restaurants to make efforts to minimize these outbreaks, they are still fairly common. According to the CDC, one in six Americans gets sick by consuming contaminated foods or beverages each year.
