No. While all of the ingredients we use to make the food we serve—such as the corn flour in our corn tortillas, or the organic tofu in our Sofritas—are non-GMO, some of our suppliers may use processing aids that contain GMO material.
The FDA defines “processing aids” as:
Substances that are added to a food during the processing of such food but are removed in some manner from the food before it is packaged in its finished form.
Substances that are added to a food during processing, are converted into constituents normally present in the food, and do not significantly increase the amount of the constituents naturally found in the food.
Substances that are added to a food for their technical or functional effect in the processing but are present in the finished food at insignificant levels and do not have any technical or functional effect in that food.
Processing aids aren’t additives like preservatives, colors, or flavors, which are required to be included on ingredient lists. Instead, they are substances that serve a specific purpose in food production, but either do not appear in the finished food or are present at insignificant levels in the finished food. Fruit and vegetable washes are a good example of a processing aid. We use fruit and vegetable wash to clean the produce we serve in Chipotle restaurants, and some of our produce suppliers use fruit and vegetable washes in the process of packing produce.
Some of the food producers who supply Chipotle may use various processing aids that contain GMO material or are produced by genetically modified organisms.