Is it safe to eat at Chipotle restaurants? The question has been baffling many foodies and the popular Mexican chain’s loyal customers after bacteria and virus outbreaks at the company’s many restaurants sickened many people in various US states.

The food-illness forced the company to close many of its stores in Washington and Oregon. Until now, about 72 people have fallen ill after eating at various Chipotle stores. The Denver headquartered company said that it is working hard to solve the issue, but Chipotle doesn’t have definitive ‘yes’ to question: Whether it’s safe to eat at the company’s restaurant.

William Marler from the Seattle-based Marler Clark LLP said, “I’ve been doing this since the Jack in the Box outbreak of 1993 and the number of possible cases in such a short period of time is something I’ve never really seen before”.

First E. coli cases linked to the Chipotle Mexican Grill were reported in Seattle in July this year. After that, approximately 100 cases showed up of norovirus in California’s Simi Valley in August. The company’s restaurants in Minnesota sickened about 70 customers the following month. Now earlier this week, Boston College announced that more than 140 of its students fell ill after eating at the company’s restaurants.

In a latest report, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that more than 50 cases have been confirmed in nine US states. Washington and Oregon were the most affected states in the US, the report added.