You’re at the hottest place to eat in town, you order your food, and you are so ready to start devouring your meal-not knowing what kind of bacteria could be contaminating your dinner at that very moment.

Recently, Chipotle has climbed its way to the top of the headlines thanks to E. coli.

E. coli  is a bacteria that can be found in food and in the environment. Not all the Chipotles have been affected by the bacteria though.

Shrewsbury recently opened a Chipotle that most of us attend, and luckily this Chipotle is safe.

Junior employee at Chipotle Sierra Breeding was able to verify that their food is perfectly edible.

“The outbreak is not in Shrewsbury; it is in Boston. The way we receive our food is from a local supplier, so the local supplier, located in Boston, had contaminated the food that was then used at a Chipotle near Boston College that had gotten nearly 80 students sick,” said Breeding.

To ensure that the people who eat at the Chipotle in Shrewsbury do not get affected by the outbreak, they have taken on new and intense cleaning procedures.

Employee at Chipotle Autumn Polanowski goes through many safety steps throughout her shift.

“ At the end of every night we do a complete clean out with sanitizers and bleach to make sure all the surfaces are clean. Next, throughout the shift we set a timer for every thirty minutes, and every thirty minutes we wash our hands. We also will wash all the vegetables and food really well before serving it…,” said Polanowski.

As more and more people become aware of this huge issue, other food business fear this could happen to them. To protect yourself from contaminating food, there are several procedures you can take.  

Junior employee Gabby Maiorano works at Bonkey’s Ice cream shop, and she knows her work is safe due to the precautions the employees take every time they are working. 

“Every time we are working with food, we wash our hands. That is the first thing we do when getting to our shift or doing anything is wash our hands. We also make sure at the end of the night everything is clean and put in place. Finally, we make sure anytime we see anything wrong we throw it out immediately,” said Maiorano.

Not only do employees need to always be clean and on the lookout for anything wrong, so do you. For example, there are preventative measures one can take to lower the chances of falling ill from E. coli and other diseases. One is to make sure your hands are always clean before preparing any food. Finally, make sure to cook any raw food thoroughly to lower the risk of being infected with bacteria.

Bacterial diseases are very dangerous when caught, and they seem to be making their way through some restaurants. To protect yourself, make sure to take precautionary actions and look out for any symptoms. For more information, visit the CDC’s website,  http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/.