In an industry breakthrough, Chipotle has removed one of the things that consumers – particularly Millennials – want least in their food: GMOs.
The Mexican fast-casual dining chain on Monday announced that it has become the first national restaurant chain to use only non-GMO ingredients. Co-CEO Steve Ells, in a statement, said the Denver-based chain has achieved that unusual goal not only at Chipotle Mexican Grills but also at its ShopHouse Southeast Asia Kitchen locations.
“There is a lot of debate about genetically modified foods,” said Ells, in a statement. “Though many countries have already restricted or banned the use of GMO crops, it’s clear that a lot of research is still needed before we can truly understand all of the implications of widespread GMO cultivation and consumption. While that debate continues, we decided to move on non-GMO ingredients.”
A GMO is an organism whose genome has been altered via genetic engineering – resulting in DNA with one or more genes that wouldn’t typically be found. Many food crops, including most corn and soybeans, are genetically modified so that they can fight off certain diseases or improve their resistance to herbicides.
The move by Chipotle comes at a time major restaurant chains and food makers are falling all over themselves to remove ingredients from their foods and beverages that consumers – particularly younger consumers – don’t want. Last week, Coca-Cola announced that it was removing aspertame from Diet Coke. Earlier this year, McDonald’s announced that over over the next two years it will stop using chicken treated with antibiotics commonly used for humans.
Not yet included in Chipotle’s move to eliminate all GMOs: beverages. Most fountain drinks, for example, are made with ingredients that continue GMOs, spokesman Chris Arnold notes. But, he notes, in Denver Chipotle is testing root beer from Maine Root which is made with cane sugar and is non-GMO.
Consumers clearly want to know whether their food is genetically engineered. About 92% of consumers believe that genetically engineered food should be labeled, according to a 2014 poll by Consumer Reports.
About 94% of corn and 93% of soybeans brown in U.S. came from GMO strains in 2014, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. That’s why upward of 80% of goods consumed in the U.S., contain GMO ingredients.
Never mind that the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates food ingredients, continues to insist that GMOs are safe. For years, activists groups, including the Center for Food Safety, have prodded the FDA to take action on limiting or eliminating the use of GMOs.
“It’s a very big deal,” says Rebecca Spector, West Coast director at the Center for Food Safety. “They’re setting an example for others that GMO-free can be done.”
For Chipotle, the bid to eliminate GMOs had been a long time coming. Back in March, 2013, it became the first national restaurant chain to voluntarily disclose GMO ingredients in its food. That’s the same time the company pledged to make the move to non-GMO ingredients. Most of the companies use of GMO ingredients is related to soybean oil, which it uses to cook chips and taco shells.
Ells says the move to non-GMO ingredients did not result in “significantly higher” ingredient costs, nor, he says, did the company raise prices as a result of this move.
Chipotle shares were up 0.4% at mid-day.
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