Carnitas Returns to 90 Percent of Chipotle Restaurants
September 28 2015 - 9:30AM
Business Wire
New Supplier Enables Chipotle to Return Popular Menu Item to
Restaurants around the Country
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) today announced that it has
restored most of its pork supply and is again serving Carnitas in
90 percent of its restaurants. The company expects to have Carnitas
back in all of its restaurants by the end of November.
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Chipotle stopped serving Carnitas at more than a third of its
restaurants earlier this year after it suspended one of its primary
pork suppliers when routine auditing found inconsistencies between
the supplier’s operations and Chipotle’s pork protocol. Chipotle’s
high standards require that pigs are raised with access to the
outdoors or deeply bedded barns, without the use of antibiotics,
and with no gestation crates. These practices are in stark contrast
with how pigs are conventionally raised, so Chipotle opted to pull
Carnitas from hundreds of restaurants rather than compromise its
commitment to animal welfare.
“The decision to stop selling Carnitas in many of our
restaurants was an easy one,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman
and co-CEO at Chipotle. “We simply will not compromise our high
standards for animal welfare. Since making this decision, we have
heard from thousands of our customers who have expressed support
for our decision, and commended us for standing on principle. Now,
we are excited to have Carnitas back in nearly all of our
restaurants, and want to thank our customers for their patience
while we worked to address this issue.”
Carnitas is now available at all Chipotle locations in the U.S.
with the exception of restaurants in the Cleveland and Atlanta
areas, and in North Carolina and South Carolina. Chipotle has been
able to replenish its pork supply working with existing suppliers
and by adding a new partner, United Kingdom-based Karro Food. Karro
produces delicious pork from pigs raised to Chipotle’s high
standards for animal welfare.
While Chipotle continues to prefer domestic sources for all of
its meat, conventionally raised pork in the U.S. does not meet the
company’s high standards for animal welfare. Pigs raised
conventionally are raised indoors, in densely crowded conditions
with little or no bedding. Most live on slatted metal floors that
allow their waste to collect beneath them in liquefied pools.
Mother pigs are often kept for months at a time in metal crates so
small that they cannot turn around, and copious quantities of
antibiotics are used to keep the animals from getting sick in these
conditions. When faced with the choice between serving conventional
pork in some of its restaurants or nothing at all, Chipotle chose
not to serve Carnitas in hundreds of its restaurants rather than
compromising its standards.
For more information, please visit chipotle.com/carnitas.
ABOUT CHIPOTLE
Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO, started Chipotle with
the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical
fast-food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused
menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the
tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients,
prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive
atmosphere. Through our vision of Food With Integrity, Chipotle is
seeking better food from using ingredients that are not only fresh,
but that — where possible — are sustainably grown and raised
responsibly with respect for the animals, the land and the farmers
who produce the food. In order to achieve this vision, we focus on
building a special people culture that is centered on creating
teams of top performers empowered to achieve high standards. This
people culture not only leads to a better dining experience for our
customers, it also allows us to develop future leaders from within.
Chipotle opened with a single restaurant in 1993 and operates more
than 1,850 restaurants, including its restaurants outside the U.S.
and 11 ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen restaurants, and is an
investor in an entity that owns and operates three Pizzeria Locale
restaurants. For more information, visit Chipotle.com.
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Chipotle Mexican GrillChris Arnold,
303-222-5912carnold@chipotle.com
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG)
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