Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 3:46pm
To: information@organicconsumers.org
Subject: truthlabeling: Reply from Chipotle regarding GMOs

Sarah Sxxxxxx writes:
 
Chipotle, one of my favorite restaurants, is not quite as sustainable as it appears on the outside. I sent them an email asking about their policies on GMOs since they use corn products and cook everything in soy oil. Please see their reply below. . .

From: renee.nunez@chipotle.com
Subject: Reply from Chipotle
To: sxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com

Sarah,

Thanks for writing to us. Right now, the only entirely non-GMO ingredients we have are our tomatoes the corn in our corn-poblano salsa, the portion of our beans that are organic and the organic cilantro we are serving in select markets. We cannot guarantee that any of our other foods are non-GMO at this time but we are looking at this for the future. The reason we can’t guarantee GMO free for most of our foods is that GMO foods are not segregated or labeled in this country, and the only way you can tell generally if something is GMO free is if it’s labeled specifically as organic. The price point for organic is too high for us for most of our foods, which is why we cannot guarantee GMO free ingredients for most of our foods.

We’re researching all ways to improve our food since we can’t do it all at once. Variables like supply and demand could either leave us with shortages or inconsistencies. We might even face tremendous price increases to guarantee a steady supply of unobtainable ingredients. There are also many other factors to think about. For instance, even if we could get more GMO-free tomatoes than we currently do, if they are only grown in one area, shipping them to all of our restaurants would be prohibitively expensive and environmentally harmful due to resource waste. We have to look at the benefits versus the all the costs.

We are heavily committed to continuing to improve all of our foods and their sources constantly, and GMO concerns are very important to us as well. We promise to continue improvements in our food supplies for the years ahead. I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Renee

Renee Nunez | Customer Service
Chipotle Mexican Grill