16 votes

Chipotle Spills The Beans: Ingredients Contain GMOs

In a surprising move, the Mexican-style fast food chain Chipotle became the first United States restaurant to explicitly label foods containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) on its menu.

The controversial technology, which modifies crops’ DNA, increases the quantity and availability of food to the world’s population ― yet some say its impact on human health remains to be seen. Although they have not been on the market long enough to effectively study long-term effects, there has been research that points to possible side effects such as allergies, mental disorders and cancer.

With its “Food With Integrity” slogan, Chipotle Mexican Grill has always touted its food options as healthier than that of other fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King.

“At Chipotle, our vision of Food With Integrity is about serving our customers the best tasting and most healthful ingredients possible, sourced from farmers and ranchers whose practices show respect for animals and the environment,” reads the Ingredients Statement posted on its website.

However, Chipotle is now acknowledging the presence of GMOs in half of the restaurant’s ingredients, labeling them as such on the website’s menu.

Read the rest of this story.

There was another post on DP but the title of the source article was misleading so I decided to repost another article with a more appropriate heading.

UPDATE 6/27/13: Link to CNN Video Report.

Comment viewing options


Ahh yes...It all makes sense

Ahh yes...It all makes sense now. I finally know why Chipotle makes me bleed blood out my ass.

- Brennan

Maybe it has nothing to do with GMOs but,

I've always thought it was tasteless garbage. An embarrassment to Mexican food. I rank it with school cafeteria food.


Ouch I eat there all the time cuz I thought they'd be non-GMO..

Can't believe the brown rice is GMO... Guess I won't be eating there as much anymore... I think this will fundamentally hurt their company because I know a lot of vegetarians and vegans who rely on Chipotle. However I don't know how much the company relies on vegetarians and vegans. They should probably at least change their rice suppliers.. geez..

As a company their PE ratio is fairly high at 40, but they have no debt and have 20% revenue growth and 30% earnings growth over the past 5 years and even better free cash flow growth. When the market crashes and when their business adjusts to this major GMO revelation it might be a good company to pick up some shares of the company.



9-11 Actors:


Honestly, makes you wonder...

If you look at the menu and read what they say, they re "trying" to not use GMO's, supposedly. It actually, I think, makes people aware.

When I first read the title, I thought, "Well, I won't be eating there." But actually, I want to work with Chipotle to end the use of GMO's.

Michael Nystrom's picture

Thanks Joseph


Good. They're labeled. Voluntarily.

Will this stop me from eating there? The sad truth is probably no.


You know that sick feeling in your stomach?

Well, I ate there TODAY for lunch before I came across this news article. It was all I could do to not yak. I stopped eating their corn and laid off the tortillas a while ago when I became cognizant of the probability of their GMO corn, and furled an eyebrow when they started offering their soy "sofritas" but I was somewhat shocked about the fajita veggies (tainted with soybean oil).

Looks like my new go to entree will have to be carnitas, pinto beans, salsa, cheese a top a bed of salad. Preservatives, OK tolerable. GMO, no.

So...up until today you'd

So...up until today you'd been eating there with absolutely no complaints or ill effects, then suddenly you start developing imaginary symptoms.

Yeah, I see where this is all going now. Hypocritical nonsense that is completely fear based. You know, you're not going to live forever and just being exposed to the sun a little too much is enough to damage your body far more than consuming "GMOs". Get real. Nearly all plants and foods have been "modified" in one way another to increase yield or change the taste or decrease fat, etc. Even human beings are continually and subtly mutating in response to a number of genetic, bacterial and environmental factors. That's right, even people are "GMOs".

Figures of speech

"You know that sick feeling in your stomach?"

It is like if someone had told you they had spit in the sandwich they made for you. Perhaps low risk for adverse reaction but the digestion of something you perceive won't be good for you in the long term is the same biological mechanism for regurgitating any perceived poison.

The rationale for avoiding GMOs and not being a human guinea pig is the same for rejecting the indiscriminate data sucking of the NSA; none of us really knows what will be the long term adverse effects on our quality of life. Sure people don't live forever but they don't want to find themselves caged up because of some embarrassing photo they might have posted or message taken out of context that the NSA intercepted; likewise, living without some kind of cancer that may become attributed to GMOs is something that should be given consideration. Given the wide latitude that the federal government had given to GMO and their developer's patent claims to the end of wiping out conventional farms infiltrated by GMO pollen, the idea of a GMO world with no recourse to what was available decades ago is indeed alarming. And no one is arguing about the modifications of plants through natural means like natural selection or grafting; it is this out-of-the-lab and into nature phenomenon of GMOs and the unforeseen consequences that we are bringing attention to. Not too dissimilar to the dilemma of water supply pollution from pharmaceuticals.

Knowledge is power. We should encourage this sort of transparency as a voluntary act by companies. And given this knowledge, we can act as reason dictates and muddle about the best we can.

If their burritos are an

If their burritos are an example of GMOs in action, I'll have another.

I applaud their being proactive, but GMO fear isn't a large concern in America. Much more so in Europe.

So why...

So why is it so expensive? It costs enough to be real. Checked off the list and a big goodbye to Chipolte.

Even the meat America is eating is GMO

From the article:

All of the tortillas, rice and meat options contain GMOs except for the pork carnitas.

Soybean oil

I don't think they have GMO meat yet...are they talking about the Soybean oil? All the meat is cooked in soybean oil which is GMO...I think they are talking about that....well hmm.

I would think the pork carnitas are also cooked in soy oil..confused.

After reading on the website it does appear to be limited to the soybean oil and corn ingredients. Sure it would be better to not have any at all....but I think overall its better than most restaurants.

GMO feed like corn or soybeans

In the case of Chipotle, they are labeling meats that have any contact with soybean oil but there's an issue with the meat being tainted if the animals had fed off of GMO feed where corn and soybeans are not uncommon (candy has been used as feed at times).

I'm still curious about how Chipotle qualifies the term "responsibly raised meats." Does this mean the animals can be fed GMO corn and soybeans or non-GMO feed? Or does this mean pasture raised or grass fed? RRM may be just another weasel word; hopefully they will provide clarification in time.