Chipotle becomes first national restaurant company to use only non-GMO ingredients

Chipotle Mexican Grill has moved to using only non-GMO ingredients in all of the food it makes in its U.S. restaurants — including all of the food at its Asian restaurant concept, ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen. The company is now actively developing new recipes for its tortillas, which are the only food items on its menu that include any artificial additives. Both initiatives underscore Chipotle’s commitment to serving food made from the very best ingredients.

GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are crops that have had specific changes introduced to their DNA that don’t occur naturally, using the science of genetic engineering. GMOs are common in the American food system.

Chipotle became the first national restaurant company to voluntarily disclose GMO ingredients in its food in March 2013 and pledged at that time to move to non-GMO ingredients for all of its food. Most of the company’s use of genetically modified ingredients was tied to soybean oil, which it used to cook chips and taco shells, and in a number of recipes (such as the adobo rub it uses for grilled chicken and steak) and for cooking (both on its grills and for use in saute pans). Corn and flour tortillas also included some GMO ingredients.

Chipotle suppliers planted non-GMO corn varieties to meet Chipotle’s needs for corn tortillas, and the company replaced soybean oil with sunflower oil to cook its chips and taco shells, and with rice bran oil for other recipes and uses. Both oils are extracted from crops for which there are no commercially available genetically modified varieties. Other GMO ingredients in tortillas were replaced with non-GMO alternatives.

While GMO advocates point to higher costs associated with producing non-GMO foods, Chipotle’s move did not result in significantly higher ingredient costs for the company, and it did not raise prices resulting from its move to non-GMO ingredients.

With the transition to non-GMO ingredients for its food completed, Chipotle has set its sights on eliminating the few remaining artificial ingredients from its tortillas. Excluding tortillas, the food on Chipotle’s entire menu consists of just 46 ingredients — nearly all of which are simple, whole ingredients that could be purchased at any local supermarket. By contrast, a typical Mexican fast food restaurant may use well over 200 different ingredients.

For more information about Chipotle’s ingredients and its move to non-GMO foods, visit www.chipotle.com/gmo. To learn more about its quest to make tortillas even better, visit www.chipotle.com/tortilla-journey.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Chipotle becomes first national restaurant company to use only non-GMO ingredients."