Chipotle Mexican Grill has completed a task that remained elusive for years: removing all food products derived from genetically engineered crops from its menu.
The Denver-based company is the first national restaurant chain to make the change.
The restaurant chain鈥檚 move is part of an overall effort to set itself apart from other fast food chains, using and , to boost its brand, says , who studies food advertising and marketing at Colorado State University.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been in recent years with Chipotle鈥檚 nutrition,鈥� Abrams says. 鈥淪o one of their unique selling features is trying to add in these value-added ingredients to market themselves as superior to other fast food chains.鈥�
The company鈥檚 executives had until this point told customers that most of the food you鈥檇 find along their assembly line is devoid of ingredients derived from genetically engineered crops. The sticking points came from the flours and oils that make up tortillas and fry chips, Chipotle founder .
To fry tortillas and vegetables, Chipotle relied heavily on soybean oil. More than 90 percent of the nation鈥檚 soybean crop is genetically engineered. It鈥檚 now switching out soy for sunflower, rice bran and non-GMO canola oil, according to the New York Times.
Going GMO-free is relatively easy for Chipotle, Abrams says. Most food served at the restaurant comes from crops like tomatoes and peppers, or from animals, with no genetically-engineered varieties on the market. Plus, the company has made no pledges to source organic meat, meaning the cows, pigs and chickens that become the meat in the burrito are likely still eating GMO feed.
Chipotle has had trouble in the past meeting its demand for meat raised under the company鈥檚 animal welfare standards. In January, Chipotle temporarily across the country after it found one of its suppliers failed to meet welfare standards.
Why the priority placed on ridding the company鈥檚 supply chain of oils and flours derived from genetically engineered corn and soy? Because, Ells has said, there鈥檚 a 鈥渓ack of consensus鈥� about the effects of genetically engineered crops, reported.
But a 2015 Pew Research Center survey of scientists with the American Association for the Advancement of Science showed a consensus on the safety of eating genetically engineered food. Eighty-eight percent of AAAS members said the foods are safe, compared to .
That gap in opinion shows just it can be for a company to market itself as GMO-free, Abrams says. Chipotle executives don鈥檛 have to draw the connection between GMOs and health, she says, consumers are quick to do that themselves.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of research that shows that marketing foods with being organic, cage-free, no GMOs, have this halo effect where people just assume that they鈥檙e healthier nutritionally, even though they鈥檙e not actually healthier,鈥� Abrams says.
Chipotle is hardly the first food company to try and market itself as a unique dining option with a claim of being GMO-free. In 2014, General Mills rolled out a breakfast cereal. At the time General Mills executives with genetically engineered crops.
Chipotle did not return a request for comment for this story.
