Everything old is new again: Sous vide at Chipotle edition

Genetic marker testing is in, no it’s out. Adding cilantro to hot rice is in. Ceviche salsa is in? I can’t keep track of Chipotle’s changes anymore.

Centralized sous vide for steak is in and it’s new. Just like the sous vide technique Chipotle has been using for it’s carnitas and barbacoa?20120423-barbacoa-chipotle-

According to ABC News, Chipotle’s new food safety folks are making some updates to the chain’s much ballyhooed plans to take food safety into the future.

Another change is coming to Chipotle: how the company cooks its steaks. A Chipotle spokesperson told ABC News the company is beginning to prepare the steak used in its burritos, bowls and tacos using a French culinary technique to help prevent future pathogen outbreaks at its restaurants.

Chris Arnold, a spokesman for Chipotle, said the steak will be cooked “sous vide” at an off-site central kitchen and then marinated and seared on grills in the restaurants.

Chipotle’s steak was previously grilled in each restaurant location, according to the company website. Chipotle’s beef barbacoa and pork carnitas though have long been cooked in central kitchens, Arnold said.

“Central cooking sounds like a much safer process,” William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, told ABC News. “Pathogen testing is very elaborate, expensive and would not produce 100 percent results.”

Arnold addressed The Journal’s reporting, telling ABC News today, “Our commitment to establishing Chipotle as a leader in food safety remains fully intact. Over the last few months, we have implemented a number of programs and procedures to enhance food safety — including prep of some ingredients in central kitchens, high resolution testing of ingredients, and procedural changes in our restaurants. Any changes we may make to our initial plans will be to strengthen what we are doing.”

On its website, Chipotle describes its high-resolution testing as “the practice of taking a large number of samples from a relatively small amount of the ingredient,” which it says, for example, “substantially reduces the risk that unsafe cilantro will go undetected.”

In addition to implementing changes to how its steak is prepared, Chipotle is preparing and testing tomatoes, romaine lettuce and bell peppers in its central kitchen, according to the Chipotle website. The company previously diced tomatoes at its restaurants, the company website explains.

Sam Oches, editor of Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) magazine, said he isn’t surprised if Chipotle is fine-tuning its food safety process.

Oches said he applauded Chipotle’s move to hire a food safety czar and its decision to offer free burritos to customers last month.

“It’s hard to understate how shocking this whole thing has been because Chipotle for many years has been the gold standard,” Oches said. “It’s to say this can happen to any company. There will be so many lessons learned in this. There will be textbooks written about this. Any company that wants to scale fresh locally-sourced food will have to study Chipotle. We’re watching food safety history be written.”

Maybe the internal emails blaming Australian beef suppliers (which is really about cross-contamination and cooking in the restaurant) is a clue to the centralized sous vide steak change.
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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.