Yahoo – AFP,
27 April 2015
New York (AFP) - US fast-food chain Chipotle said Monday it had crossed off food made with genetically modified organisms (GMO) from its menus, saying they haven't been proven safe for consumption and the environment.
New York (AFP) - US fast-food chain Chipotle said Monday it had crossed off food made with genetically modified organisms (GMO) from its menus, saying they haven't been proven safe for consumption and the environment.
"There
is a lot of debate about genetically modified foods," said Steve Ells,
Chipotle's founder, chairman and co-chief executive, 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," he said.
"While
that debate continues, we decided to move to non-GMO ingredients."
The
fast-growing Chipotle Mexican Grill, which has built its brand on "food
with integrity", began disclosing the presence of controversial GMO
ingredients in its food in March 2013, and promised to eliminate all of them.
The company
announced Monday that it had achieved that goal in its 1,800 restaurants,
including both Chipotle and its ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen chain.
The company
said government data shows that 94 percent of corn and 93 percent of soybeans
grown in the US came from GMO strains in 2014, making it difficult for
consumers to avoid consuming genetically engineered foods in restaurants or
buying them at the grocery store.
Much of
Chipotle's GMO use involved soybean oil, which it has now replaced with
sunflower oil to cook its chips and taco shells, and rice bran oil for all
other uses. None of the commercially available sunflower and rice bran oils are
made with GMOs, it said.
The company
also replaced GMO ingredients in its corn and flour tortillas with non-GMO
alternatives.
The Denver,
Colorado-based company said the move to non-GMO ingredients did not
significantly raise ingredient costs or force price-rises.
Chipotle
also said it was moving toward removing the few remaining artificial
ingredients from its menu, only found in its tortillas, such as preservatives
and dough conditioners.
Ells said
that goal would be difficult to reach but new tortilla recipes were showing
promise.
Last week
Chipotle posted $122.6 million in first-quarter earnings, a jump of 48 percent
from a year ago.
But it
forecasted slower sales growth for the full year, in part due to shortages of
its popular pork carnitas dish since Chipotle suspended a pork supplier earlier
this year over "inhumane" practices.
Shares in
Chipotle were up almost one percent at 643.80 in morning trade on the New York
Stock Exchange.
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