Victory! Chipotle Labels GMO Ingredients

The fast-food Mexican restaurant Chipotle has become the first chain establishment to label all GMO-derived ingredients on their online menu.

NaturalSociety.com’s Anthony Gucciardi notes that Chipotle has also announced that they are trying to eliminate all GMO ingredients, though that may be a long-term project.

“Our goal is to eliminate GMOs from Chipotle’s ingredients, and we’re working hard to meet this challenge,” the restaraunt states on their website. “For example, we recently switched our fryers from soybean oil to sunflower oil. Soybean oil is almost always made from genetically modified soybeans, while there is no commercially available GMO sunflower oil. Where our food contains currently unavoidable GM ingredients, it is only in the form of corn or soy.”

Chipotle’s online menu states that 12 of their ingredients come from genetically-modified corn or soybean oil.

The move is a response to the growing movement against GMOs in this country. Critics of GMOs say that their use has been linked to health and environmental problems.

This isn’t the first time Chipotle has waded into the GMO debate. The company supported Proposition 37, the California ballot measure that would have required labeling GMOs. The initiative narrowly lost last year.

“We want our customers to know exactly what they are eating. For us, this is real transparency—because knowing more about where our food comes from is always better than knowing less,” the company wrote on their website. “In light of this, and our vision of Food With Integrity, we wholeheartedly support the cause of Prop 37, having endorsed the measure as soon as we heard it was on the ballot.”