A woman who was hospitalized with sepsis has sued Chipotle after eating a burrito bowl she claims had salmonella-linked jalapeño peppers.
Kristen Behne got sick after eating at a Chipotle restaurant in Roseville, Minnesota, on June 24, her lawsuit claims.
“Three days later she was in a hospital bed, febrile, tachycardic, and septic—a life-threatening complication of the Salmonella infection caused by Chipotle’s grossly contaminated food,” read a lawsuit filed on Behne’s behalf against the Mexican food chain Wednesday.
Federal health officials have linked a recent Salmonella outbreak to jalapeño peppers from Mexico that were distributed to Mexican restaurants in the US, including Chipotle and Qdoba.
As of Wednesday, 345 people from 27 states have been infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella, and there have been 36 hospitalizations, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Minnesota and Colorado have been hit the hardest, with more than 100 cases each. There have been no outbreak-related deaths reported.
The Food and Drug Administration says people were infected with the foodborne bacteria for about a month starting on June 19. Of the nearly 200 people that officials interviewed, 93 percent reported eating at a Mexican restaurant before getting sick, including Chipotle and Qdoba, according to officials.
Behne’s lawsuit claims that she was one of the people “poisoned” by Chipotle. Her lawyers argue that the Salmonella sample recovered from her body matched the strain that caused the outbreak.
“Ms. Behne did nothing wrong. She could not have inspected her food for Salmonella; the pathogen is invisible, odorless, and tasteless,” the lawsuit read. “She was entitled to rely—and did rely—on Chipotle’s representations that the food it prepared and sold was safe to eat. Those representations were false.”
Chipotle switched its jalapeño supplier for the stores that were impacted by the outbreak starting on July 20, and Qdoba also stopped serving the peppers about a week later.
“The health and safety of our guests and employees is our highest priority,” Chipotle said in a statement Wednesday.
The company said it has a “robust ingredient traceability system and, upon learning of a potential Salmonella outbreak in the supply chain impacting wholesalers and restaurants,” it identified the affected jalapeños, “proactively removed them from the restaurants where they had been distributed, and replaced them with product from different growers.”
The FDA says it does not believe there is an ongoing risk from Chipotle and Qdoba because they removed the affected jalapeños. The Independent has reached out to Chipotle and a lawyer representing Behne for comment.
Common symptoms of salmonella infection are watery diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. But there are also more severe symptoms, and patients could have long-term complications.
On June 27, Behne started getting symptoms such as fever, chills and vomiting, according to the lawsuit. She lost consciousness at one point and had a temperature of 102 degrees, her lawyers said.
The next day, Behne “experienced more than ten episodes of diarrhea in a twenty-four-hour period,” the lawsuit said.
She was admitted to the hospital on June 28 and discharged two days later.
But Behne “continues to experience the effects of her acute Salmonella infection and her septic episode,” and she is “at increased risk” of complications, including reactive arthritis and post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in compensatory damages.
People are also seeking legal action against Taco Bell amid the cyclospora outbreak that has infected more than 10,000 people across the country this summer.
More than 500 infected people have been hospitalized, and two patients with underlying medical conditions have died, according to officials. Federal health officials have linked the outbreak to Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico and sold at Taco Bell.