Chipotle Mexican Grill founder, co-CEO, and chairman Steve Ells recently expressed his apology and vowed the restaurant as the safest place to eat after food poisoning issues.

In his interview with Today Show on Dec. 11, Ells said that it was a really tough time. The Chipotle founder said that he had to say he was sorry for the people that had gotten sick because they were having a tough time. For Ells, he felt terrible about that and they were doing a lot to rectify and make sure that it would not happen again.

According to The Oceanside Post, Chipotle released a statement on Dec. 11 saying that Chipotle had taken aggressive actions toward implementation of industry-leading food safety and food handling practices in all of its restaurants and throughout its supply chain.

On Dec. 10, a Chipotle restaurant South Lake Union branch was closed by Seattle health officials for repeated food safety protocol deviations. According to public health officials, lab tests confirmed the presence of norovirus at a Chipotle restaurant near Boston College campus, which had more than 120 students who felt ill after eating their meals.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that can infect everyone. It can be acquired from interacting with an infected person, consuming contaminated food and water, or touching contaminated surfaces.

Norovirus causes stomach or intestinal upset, which also leads to associated symptoms like stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Symptoms can be serious in some people, particularly the extremes in the age spectrum.

It is noted that Chipotle's stock suffered a 20 percent decline in stocks after the outbreak; however, shares went up by 3.6 percent at $567.71 in premarket trading following Ells' appearance in Today. In his interview, Ells implied that Chipotle would "certainly" recover financially after the incident.

Found in 1993, Chipotle serves "naturally raised meat" and promotes sustainably agriculture.