CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL CONSUMER SENTIMENT - Q SURVEY + FOOD SAFETY EXPERT INSIGHTS

Transcription

1 CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL CONSUMER SENTIMENT - Q SURVEY + FOOD SAFETY EXPERT INSIGHTS

2 CHIPOTLE CONSUMER SENTIMENT SURVEY (Q1 2016) ABOUT Organic Authority is a trusted online publication that covers the organic lifestyle. Our readers are conscious consumers that make decisions about the food that they eat and the products they use. Approximately 1 million readers visit each month. BACKGROUND Chipotle Mexican Grill is a disruptor in the fast-casual restaurant business. With more than 1,900 locations, they ve built a brand that targets consumers that care about how their food is grown, how it s raised, sourced and processed. Their motto, food with integrity. But a string of food borne illness outbreaks in 2015 and as recently as March 2016 has left many questioning the brand s integrity and wondering if Chipotle s food is safe to eat. We conducted a survey in Q in order to gauge consumer sentiment towards Chipotle. METHODOLOGY In the period Jan. 15th - Mar. 9th, 2016, we surveyed approximately 540 readers on who we will refer to as conscious consumers. We qualified survey respondents by asking them the following Yes/No questions. When you eat out, do you make healthy choices? Are you familiar with Chipotle Mexican Grill? Are you aware of recent news regarding Chipotle Mexican Grill s food safety practices? We then asked them the following: Overall, how trustworthy is Chipotle Mexican Grill to you as a brand? (5-Star Rating System) Would you eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill today? (Yes/No) What would it take for you to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill again? (Open Ended)

3 CHIPOTLE CONSUMER SENTIMENT SURVEY (Q1 2016) SUMMARY FINDINGS: CONSCIOUS CONSUMERS Q: Overall, how trustworthy is Chipotle Mexican Grill to you as a brand? (542 Respondents rated chipotle based on a 5-star system,with 1-star being the least trustworthy and 5-stars being the most trustworthy) Chipotle Mexican Grill s earned an average trust score of 3 out of 5 stars Q: Would you eat at Chipotle today? (540 Respondents) 50% of consumers surveyed would not eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill Today Q: Would you eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill if some of the ingredients are no longer locally sourced but are safer to eat? (525 respondents) 47% of respondents answered No 55% of respondents answered Yes Q: What would it take for you to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill again? (124 Open-Ended Responses) 29% of respondents who won t eat at Chipotle today want assurance of better safety before they eat at Chipotle again 12% of respondents who won t eat at Chipotle today want Chipotle Mexican Grill to continue to stick to local, organic, and/or GMO Free ingredients before they eat at Chipotle again 37% of respondents who won t eat at Chipotle today say they won t eat at Chipotle again

4 CHIPOTLE CONSUMER SENTIMENT SURVEY (Q1 2016) Q: How trustworthy is Chipotle Mexican Grill to you as a brand with 5 being the highest score? (542 Respondents) 180 Responses Average Trust Score: 3 out of 5 Trust Score

5 CHIPOTLE CONSUMER SENTIMENT SURVEY (Q1 2016) Q: Would you eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill today? (540 Respondents) No 50% Yes 50% Half of Conscious Consumers would not eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill today.

6 CHIPOTLE CONSUMER SENTIMENT SURVEY (Q1 2016) Q: Would you eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill if some of the ingredients are no longer locally sourced but are safer to eat? (525 Respondents) No 47% Yes 54% 47% of survey respondents would not eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill if some of the ingredients are no longer locally sourced. *Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add up to 100%

7 CHIPOTLE CONSUMER SENTIMENT SURVEY (Q1 2016) Q: What would it take for you to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill again? (124 Open Ended Responses) WILL NOT EAT AT CHIPOTLE AGAIN TIME AND/OR ASSURANCE OF BETTER SAFETY STICK TO "FOOD WITH INTEGRITY" NOT SURE INCENTIVES/COUPONS MORE HEALTHY MENU OPTIONS NEW MANAGEMENT 2% BETTER TASTE 2% 9% 6% 6% 12% 29% 37% Notes Respondents that answered STICK TO FOOD WITH INTEGRITY mentioned a combination of any of the following keywords: local, GMO-Free, Organic, trustworthy ingredients. Each survey respondent could mention more than one category.

8 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS One of Chipotle Mexican Grill s new policies is to employ a commissary approach and process its tomatoes, cilantro and lettuce in a central location before shipping it to each individual restaurant. While many experts reiterated that this approach should be part of a larger comprehensive plan (which it is) it also presents additional risks as well. Q: Chipotle Mexican Grill has stated that they intend to prepare and hermetically seal some of their produce in one national location in order to reduce the risk of food borne illnesses. Do you think this practice will be effective? 53% Food Safety Experts surveyed indicate that Chipotle s plans to hermetically seal some of their produce in one national location (commissary approach) in order to reduce the risk of food borne illnesses may not be effective.

9 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS Q: If you answered "No" to the previous question please elaborate on why centralizing some of the produce preparation would not be effective. No. Hermetic sealing introduces multiple other risks. It creates an anaerobic environment for botulism. Having one national location means it will take longer for the produce to reach the restaurant, thus increasing the chances of contamination and packaging compromise. - Olga Glazman, Private Inspector-Food It depends on what control measure are in place at this one location. - Afua Tetteh, Food Safety Consultant How do you know they are not sealing in the problem? if you move to one location the company will need to increase it's transportation and handling costs and improve its trailer sanitation practices etc. Also food safety begins in the field unless they have a field safety protocol they will not be able to localize the problem. Having one location also means shutting down the whole operation which will be likely since contamination always has a way of spreading. Listeria is particularly problematic. - Michael McCartney, COO Naturipe Farms in charge of all food safety This doesn't address the complete issue. While it will help one part of the food chain, it doesn't fully address all areas. Adjacent field contamination as well as other supplier issues can only be address by vigilant inspections. - Robert Burgh, President at Nexcor Technologies, 30 years experience in providing food safety compliance / sanitation management solutions to food manufacturers. Developed KLEANZ Food Safety Compliance software.

10 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS "Packaging is one single factor in a complex, multi-faceted system that is food safety. To clarify, preparing and hermetically sealing produce may be an effective way in reducing the risk of some types of pathogenic microorganisms. However, multiple sources of risk can lead to an outbreak issue, thus multiple preventative measures must be erected; keeping in mind any new measure must be verified/monitored and validated to prove effectiveness. Packaging technologies can surely help aid in suppressing some types of microbial growth and shelf-life issues, but the big-picture focus needs to be on the company creating a culture of food safety and quality in everyday and all practices. Other items of focus should be traceability systems, sanitation measures, GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices)/training, and the supplier approval process. Creating a culture of food quality is also about transparency, starting from the top-up; this then promotes all employees to voice concerns and initiate improvements in their own tasks. Transparency promotes a heightened level and awareness of responsibility. In the food manufacturing industry their is a relatively high-expectation from retailers that manufacturers develop a multi-department quality management system which includes a hazard analysis system that systematically identifies all sources of hazards and addresses each hazard with a verified and validated procedure. This then leads to critical record-keeping to continuously prove that the 'do what we say'-method is in place. This system is then audited on a regular basis, and now many of these audits are transitioning to an unannounced approach. - Kristen Palynchuk, Food Safety Consultant It is not centralization but proper food safety management systems like HACCP, ISO More regular microbial tests at critical points along the product chain will be important initially but to be reduced depending the frequency of non conforms - Patrick Njage, Associate Professor, expert in food safety, quality management and risk analysis

11 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS Q: If you answered "No" to the previous question please elaborate on why centralizing some of the produce preparation would not be effective. It may work. It will depend on their sampling program to ensure their raw ingredients are not introducing harmful bacteria into the production stream. They will also need to very closely monitor the environmental flora in this facility. It could be a solution for them, or if left uncontrolled, could be very dangerous and compound the problem. - Elise Forward, 17+ years of food safety, quality and regulatory experience, and the last 11 of those were in the Organic industry. [No] Unless you implement the testing requirements set down by the Food Safety Modernization Act. -Linda Buker, Owner of Industrial Microbiological Laboratories, Inc., an ISO accredited laboratory. " Of and by itself it will be ineffective. The effectiveness of the practice will depend on the food safety practices of the producing plant. - Carlo Silvestri, SQF Practitioner, Oversee implementation and observance of GFSI policies at a frozen food repacker and organic handler.

12 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS Q: If you answered "No" to the previous question please elaborate on why centralizing some of the produce preparation would not be effective. I believe that the practice of one national location will not be in long term, an effective one due to distance/time constraints. It will be beneficial in terms of food safety compared to the present situation and it is a step in the right direction, but it adds the issue of keeping the cold chain in a nationwide scale and things can go wrong in various scenarios in. (i.e. driver negligence, technical failure of the freezer of the transportation means [sic] etc.) Instead of one national location, I believe that the geographical distribution in five different locations could offer a more rigid food safety strategy. - Aggelos Afratis, Food Safety Consultant It can decrease the level of microorganism growth or contamination from air but cannot prevent all food borne illnesses due to grill can cause the harmful chemical reactions in food for human body and can not kill the all microorganism in food. There may be microorganism which are grows in anaerobic conditions. - Özlem Kepenekçi, Food Engineer It will control the sourcing of ingredients at each of the locations which would be effective. However once the ingredients reach the restaurant safe food handling procedures must be followed. Some of these include, time temperature control, cooking foods to proper temperatures, prevention of cross contamination, proper employee hygiene practices including hand-washing and glove use must be followed. The norovirus outbreaks came from allowing sick employees to work thus contaminating the food. The restaurant must be kept clean and food contact surfaces properly sanitized. -Jim Behnke, Teach ServSafe Manager Certification classes and have certified 750 Food Service Professionals in the essentials of food safety practices in the area of food service and retail operations.

13 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS Q: If you answered "No" to the previous question please elaborate on why centralizing some of the produce preparation would not be effective. This is a pretty broad question. It would depend on transport time/temperature and whether or not the product was going to be subjected to another "handling" step. Each time the product is subjected to a new piece of equipment, temperature change/abuse, truck, or warehouse; a new opportunity for contamination presents itself. It would be more effective to identify the source of contamination and set controls around that. - Chuck Young, Certified Food Scientist Much of the contamination we have seen has been in the farm to distribution channels. From an insurance perspective, though having one site would help reduce premium cost for coverage for recall issues, one would think. - Patrick Harrington, Associate at DrinkerBiddle, Coverage in emerging claims issues stemming from liability relating to food products, including labeling issues in the context of Organic/GMO/All-Natural foods and product recall coverage. It should be standardized with everything being done a certain way. They also need to train their on location employees as you can easily contaminate food products by following bad food practices. - Muhammad Haq, Change Engineer, Worked in CPG companies as a food technologist which involved R&D work on existing and new products. I have also done specification work that includes labeling and nutritional content as well as shelf life stability tests.

14 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS Q: If you answered "No" to the previous question please elaborate on why centralizing some of the produce preparation would not be effective. To serve safe-to-eat fresh produce (specifically Chipotle's tomatoes, cilantro and lettuce as I understand they are now 'dicing, sanitizing and hermetically sealing), Chipotle must require safe-to-eat production and harvesting in the field as well as in their restaurants. Fresh produce can be contaminated with pathogens at any stage BEFORE it reaches this centralized kitchen (commissary), as well as at any stage AFTER. From the soil and irrigation water, to harvesting equipment and harvesting employees, to packing & holding, to their kitchen counters and those food handlers poor practices - who were sick spreading Norovirus to their customers in December in Boston... It is not just 1 outbreak - they've had a serious run of 6 DIFFERENT pathogen outbreaks of making their customers sick since July No, a central commissary is not going to be a magic wand for this company - they need to focus on food safety and practice it. - Valerie Tear, Food Safety Consultant and Trainer To serve safe-to-eat fresh produce (specifically Chipotle's tomatoes, cilantro and lettuce as I understand they are now 'dicing, sanitizing and hermetically sealing), Chipotle must require safe-to-eat production and harvesting in the field as well as in their restaurants. Fresh produce can be contaminated with pathogens at any stage BEFORE it reaches this centralized kitchen (commissary), as well as at any stage AFTER. From the soil and irrigation water, to harvesting equipment and harvesting employees, to packing & holding, to their kitchen counters and those food handlers poor practices - who were sick spreading Norovirus to their customers in December in Boston... It is not just 1 outbreak - they've had a serious run of 6 DIFFERENT pathogen outbreaks of making their customers sick since July No, a central commissary is not going to be a magic wand for this company - they need to focus on food safety and practice it. - Valerie Tear, Food Safety Consultant and Trainer

15 SUPPLEMENTAL INSIGHTS: FOOD SAFETY EXPERTS Q: If you answered "No" to the previous question please elaborate on why centralizing some of the produce preparation would not be effective. This process certainly can't hurt their food safety program if, and this is a big if, they implement a detailed HACCP plan in their stores. If the product isn't handled properly in the stores it really doesn't matter what they do ahead of time. - Brad Beck, President, Consulting business specializing in 3rd party inspections, setting up HACCP programs, and training of hourly and salaried staff. 40 years experience in the food and beverage industry. But, I believe the practice could only be effective if the proper controls are put into place and practiced. Which leads to the question, why were they not able to do this in their restaurants? Maintaining washed and prepped produce food below 41 degrees F so that the cold chain is not broken is key to this procedure. - Barry Moore, Food Safety Consultant and Trainer

16 CONCLUSION Chipotle has an uphill battle to fight in order to gain back the trust of conscious consumers. While the findings in this survey are specific to the audience on they provide a glimpse into the psyche of a core market that Chipotle has long targeted. It will be interesting to see how accepting conscious consumers will be of the commissary approach and whether Chipotle can regain its status as a trusted company that is driven by food with integrity. Consider that 50% of survey takers will not eat at Chipotle today 47% of survey takers will not eat at Chipotle if they sacrifice local produce for the sake of food safety 12% of respondents who won t eat at Chipotle today and answered an open ended question regarding their intention to eat at Chipotle in the future mentioned they want Chipotle to stick to it s food with integrity mission 37% of the same respondents that won t eat at Chipotle today and answered the open-ended question regarding their future intention to eat at Chipotle do not believe they will return Food safety experts indicate that the commissary approach presents additional threats