Thank you, Benson. Good morning, everyone.

I am the founder and Co-Chief Executive

Officer of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Steve Ells. I started Chipotle more than 20 years ago, in
1993, with a vision to use great, natural ingredients prepared skillfully by hand and a passion
for serving authentic and high-quality Mexican food accessible to everyone. Our first
restaurant opened its door in Denver, and my culinary passion has led to more than 2,200
locations across the country.  

As a chef, nothing is more important to me than serving my customers food that is safe,
delicious, and wholesome. We praise ourselves for using whole, unprocessed ingredients
without adding colors, flavors or other additives typically found in fast food. It was the case
with my first location 22 years ago and remains the same today. 

From the beginning, all our food safety programs have met or exceeded industry standards.
But recent E. coli outbreaks in the past few months have unfortunately created some
uncertainties about our food safety. The outbreak that sickened 52 people last October and
the second outbreak in December that sickened approximately 140 people in Boston have
shown us that we need to do better, much better. 

On October 14, a series of E. coli outbreaks sickened 52 people in Washington, Oregon,

California, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania,
with most cases reported from Washington and Oregon states. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) later revealed that these cases had been associated with
Chipotle. In December, we were notified of other incidents of customers becoming sick
within 12-24 hours after dining at our locations. 

In response to these claims, we took steps to ensure our restaurants were safe, including
voluntarily closing all 43 locations in Washington and Oregon on October 31 and 43
locations in Portland and Seattle on December 7 for deep cleaning of all the facilities,
replacing ingredients in those restaurants and sharing all necessary supply chain data with
CDC investigators and survey all on-duty employees to be sure none have had any symptoms
of illness. We worked with health officials throughout the investigation to determine whether
it was appropriate to reopen these restaurants. Since December 8, there have been no reports
of customers being ill from our food. Yesterday, CDC also officially declared the end of E.
coli outbreaks in the country and confirmed that the source of the E. coli outbreaks is still
unknown.  

As one of the most-loved fast food chains and diners by Americans, we take full
responsibility for those affected after dining at any of our locations. The leadership team,
including myself, have paid several visits to those who were hospitalized. Our team also got
in touch with all affected customers to offer our sincere apologies and the medical support or
assistance they might require. 

At Chipotle, our goal is to operate a safe workplace for our employees and provide a safe
dining environment for our customers. However, there are times when our use of fresh and
less-processed food may be more susceptible to foodborne illnesses and potential food safety
risks, and this is one of those times. The fact that anyone has become ill after dining at
Chipotle is completely unacceptable to me. As the CEO of Chipotle, I am deeply sorry for the
people affected by this situation, and I want to apologize for letting our dear customers
down. 
There have been a few new health and safety protocols in place since the outbreaks, including
tighter controls over food quality from our suppliers, increased testing of local produce and
updated operational practices for handling certain higher-risk ingredients. Following
Monday, February 8, we will close all our locations during lunchtime to provide the space
and time for sharing new food safety practices with our employees and, most importantly,
inform and train them to prevent similar incidents from happening again. We are committed
to restoring confidence in our food safety, therefore, in the coming six to eight weeks. We
will introduce a series of new strategies to help us get there. Later, my colleagues will deep
dive into the specifics of some significant steps we are taking and will take soon to be sure all
the food we serve is as safe as it can be. 

The last 22 years have been an incredible journey of serving fresh and natural food to
Americans, and we believe these unfortunate incidents have taught us a great lesson. Still, we
are not going to shy away from this challenge. Once again, my deepest sympathies go to
those who were affected or hospitalized by the incidents and thank you to our loyal customers
who have stood by us throughout. 

On behalf of all of us at Chipotle, please be assured that our restaurants are safer today than
they have ever been, and we will continue to serve “Food with integrity.” Thank you. 
1.) There were two large-scale E. Coli outbreaks associated with Chipotle that spanned
October to December. Chipotle’s been praising itself for its “Food with Integrity” goals
and for serving unprocessed food for two decades. Why did you not pay attention to
microbial safety?  

Laurie Schalow: We have been a longtime advocate supporting the use of local, fresh
produce for the health of our customers, and that remains the core of our operating principles.
The recent food poisoning cases in the country have proved challenging in gatekeeping food
safety and to maintain the same industry safety standards for fresh and less-processed
ingredients. Our goal and priority are to strike a balance between using natural ingredients
and ensuring food safety standards.   

Regarding this, we have a comprehensive reassessment of our food safety practices

conducted with industry-leading experts, including a farm-to-fork assessment of each
ingredient Chipotle uses to establish the highest standards for safety. Measures and
precautionary actions will be implemented to make the food coming into our restaurants safer
than ever before. 
 
2.) One of your employees was sick but still went on duty, and that was how your food
got contaminated, and E. Coli was spread to your customers, is that right?  

Steve Ells: We cooperated with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) along with
CDC to investigate two outbreaks of E. coli O26 infections, and the final report from officials
stated clearly that all microbial testing performed on more than 2,500 tests of our food,
restaurant surfaces, and equipment did not yield E. coli bacteria. Also, it was confirmed that
none of our employees in the affected restaurants during that period had E. coli or reported
sick.  

Scott Boatwright: Chipotle takes our employees’ health and well-being very seriously.
Keeping our employees ‘health and well-being in good condition is crucial to our company’s
culture. We have recently announced that from 1 July, we will extend paid sick leave, paid
vacation, and tuition reimbursement to part-time employees. These benefits were provided to
full-time employees before. By offering paid sick leave to all our employees, it’s believed
that we could discourage sick employees from coming in.   
 
3.) Steve Ells went on Today Show in early December after the second outbreak, only
addressing the first E. Coli outbreak. Why did you wait until now to host a press
conference?  

Steve Ells: I went on Today Show on December 10 to address the first outbreak and shared
some stringent new guidelines to help protect our customers from future health issues. I
wanted to admit that it was a tough time, and it still is, and all of us at Chipotle are committed
to preventing the same incident from happening again. Since we have been working closely
with CDC and FDA for the past few months, we wanted to find the right time and place to
discuss it with substantial evidence and findings publicly. Americans have always loved
Chipotle and deserve a clear explanation from us. And now is the right time for it. 
 
4.) After the outbreak in October and later in December, what measures had the
company taken to compensate the numerous victims of the food poisoning incident?  
Laurie Schalow: In our latest food safety program, it includes:  
High-resolution DNA-based testing of many ingredients is designed to ensure the quality and
safety of ingredients before they are shipped to restaurants. Please note that this testing
program far exceeds state and federal regulatory agencies' requirements and industry
standards.  
Changes to food prep and food handling practices, including washing and cutting off some
produce items (such as tomatoes and romaine lettuce) and shredding cheese in central
kitchens, blanching of some produce items (including avocados, onions and limes) before
cutting in its restaurants, and new protocols for marinating chicken and steak.  
Everyone can visit our website for more information about the complete program details. 
 
5.) As this food poisoning case is not the first case since 2008, the root cause of the
outbreak seems to remain. What would you do to restore the public's confidence in your
food? 
 
Steve Ells: We serve more than 1 million customers a day in our restaurants and use
thousands of pounds of fresh produce and meat, without the use of added colors, flavors or
other additives typically found in fast food, in our restaurants every day and this is something
we are and have always been incredibly proud of. However, there are times when our use of
fresh and less-processed food may be more susceptible to foodborne illnesses and potential
food safety risks.   

That’s why we try everything within our power to minimize the risks. For example, our sick
leave policy: our frontline employees are automatically given three days of sick leave from
their first day of employment, and that is designed to reduce any risks. Also, I’d like to
pinpoint that all of our restaurants operate under a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s
(FDA) Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system, by which we identify
food safety risks in the system and implement corrective actions when needed.   

6.) Chipotle closed down 43 stores in response to the outbreak in Oct. However, another
outbreak appeared in December. What have you done to resolve the food safety issue
within this period?  

Steve Ells: To respond to the outbreaks that happened in December, we voluntarily closed 43
locations in Portland and Seattle on December 7 for deep cleaning of all the facilities,
replacing ingredients in those restaurants and sharing all necessary supply chain data with
CDC investigators and survey all on-duty employees to be sure none have had any symptoms
of illness. We worked with health officials throughout the investigation to determine whether
it was appropriate to reopen these restaurants. Since December 8, there have been no reports
of customers being ill from our food. Yesterday, CDC also officially declared the end of E.
coli outbreaks in the country and confirmed that the source of the E. coli outbreaks is still
unknown. 

Laurie Schalow: We understand there is still work to do to improve our food safety.
Therefore we carried out a range of food safety actions, including policy and procedure
review that covers the supply chain, packaging and transportation, food processing and
storage. A quality assurance programme will be introduced along with operation handling
enhancement and internal training, such as the one scheduled for tomorrow, will be provided
to our frontline employees. 
 
7.) After the outbreak in October and later in December, what measures had the
company taken to compensate the numerous victims of the food poisoning incident?  

Steve Ells: At Chipotle, our goal is to operate a safe workplace for our employees and
provide a safe dining environment for our customers. We take full responsibility for those
affected after dining at any of our locations. The leadership team, including myself, have paid
several visits to those who were hospitalized. Although the settlement is confidential to
protect our affected customers, our team got in touch with all of them to offer our sincere
apologies and medical support or assistance they might require. Enquiry hotlines have been
set up with full support around the clock.  
We understand some customers may still hesitate to dine with us, but we want to share that
our doors are always open, and all of us at Chipotle are happy to see them again. 

 
Line-to-take for any other questions: 
The last two months were one of the most challenging periods in our history. We are pleased
that CDC has now concluded its investigation into the recent E. coli incidents associated with
Chipotle. They did not find any of our food items tested with E. coli bacteria. However, we
acknowledge that customers felt ill after dining with us, and we take full responsibility for
that. We are already in touch with those affected customers and have provided assistance
accordingly. 

Moving forward, we will now put our full energies into implementing our enhanced food
safety plan to re-establish Chipotle as an industry leader in food safety.