Chipotle's CEO weighs in on the burrito bowl portion size debate

An employee prepares a burrito bowl at a Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, in February 2019. (Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg / Getty Images / File via CNN Newsource)

New York — Customers on social media have been furious with Chipotle for allegedly skimping on its burrito bowl portions this year. Now, the fast-casual chain’s CEO said the company is making changes.

“First, there was never a directive to provide less to our customers,” CEO Brian Niccol said during an earnings call Wednesday. “With that said, getting the feedback caused us to relook at our execution across our entire system.”

Niccol said the company will make “generous portions” more consistent across its more than 3,500 restaurants. He said about 10% of stores are outliers in portion sizes, and those locations will have to be retrained to the “right standards.”

With rising prices for food, many chains have been accused of shrinkflation, or selling tinier portion sizes for the same amount of money.

In June, a Wells Fargo analyst ordered and weighed 75 Chipotle burrito bowls with white rice, black beans, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese and lettuce across eight Chipotle locations in New York City. His team found a wide variety of the portion sizes.

The bowls weighed roughly the same for in-store orders and online orders, but some locations served bowls that weighed 33 per cent more than other locations. Some burrito bowls went to extremes, with one topping out at 27 ounces in one location, and a meager 14 ounces in another. The median weight was around 21.5 ounces.

Some Chiptole customers began filming employees as they built their orders to ensure satisfactory portions — but some employees pushed back, claiming the TikTok trend was “stressful and dehumanizing.”

Niccols said the company is reemphasizing its mission of a lot of food for a fair price.

“We are reemphasizing training and coaching around ensuring we are consistently making bowls and burritos correctly,” Niccol said.

The shrinkflation claims have not hurt Chipotle’s business, the company said Wednesday, though its fast casual peers from McDonald’s to MOD Pizza have struggled as more consumers choose to dine at home. The company beat analyst expectations, and its net sales rose about 18% in the second quarter of 2024.

The company said more customers were drawn to the reintroduced chicken al pastor on the menu. It also said last year’s price increases helped offset pricier avocados and increased oil used to fry tortilla chips.

CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn contributed to this report.