The Popular Mexican-American Chain Serving You Low-Quality Ingredients

Together we've witnessed the rise, fall, and comeback of Chipotle. There have been low points the E. coli outbreak in 2015 that led to near financial ruin for the company, but a change in executive leadership in 2018 and tried to turn things around. However, shortly after the pandemic, fans began talking about Chipotle on social media again for the wrong reasons — this time its portion sizes. And it seems the grievances with Chipotle didn't end there. There was a new complaint that popped up continuously: the quality of ingredients. In one conversation between Reddit users a person said they believe the ingredients have been on the decline for decades, dating back to 2012. A person on another thread referred to a recent meal they ordered for their child as "dried out chicken garbage."

On the one hand, Chipotle has gone to great lengths to establish a reputation for its ingredients. It claims its menu is made with just 53 recognizable elements that customers can pronounce. It advertises no hormones, no preservatives, and no artificial colors or flavors. But the untold truth of Chipotle reveals the company has been sued several times for allegedly not living up to its publicized standards. Claimants cited GMO feed linked to animals in Chipotle's meat and dairy products (which where we advertised non-GMO), and calorie counts not properly represented in the company's nutrition calculator.

Beyond its marketing mishaps, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Chipotle's popular menu items is the high sodium volume — and it's not only found in the meats, but also in the chips (590 milligrams per large order), fresh tomato salsa (550 milligrams), and queso (980 milligrams per large order). If you're thinking you can avoid the sodium coma by ordering a salad, proceed with caution, because the Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette dressing contains 850 milligrams of sodium per serving (just two fluid ounces).

One Reddit user at r/chipotle opened a conversation with the statement, "the amount of salt on everything [green sick face emoji]." They continue by writing that they witnessed an employee season chicken on the grill with a "fistful" of salt. A person claiming to be an employee responded to the salt accusation by saying, "we were instructed to 'make it snow' on grill meats like chicken and steak."

A person at another thread at r/chipotle was so frustrated they listed out issues with each ingredient in their usual order. "The food is objectively worse than it was a few years ago," they said. "...often my corn is frozen, the rice is stale to the point you can break a tooth on it." A person responding to the post, who identified themselves as a former and returned Chipotle employee, said the inconsistencies with food and service quality they witnessed internally were due to corporate adjustments they believed did not benefit the customers.