Chipotle fans may be cheering now that the Mexican fast-food chain has axed genetically modified – or GMO – ingredients from its menu offerings, but a New York nutritionist says the switch is more about perception than actual nutrition.
“Most of Chipotle’s main customers are ‘millennials’, or young people born between the early 1980s and 2000s. The use of GMOs is a hot topic for that age group, with most having concerns around the production and potential long-term effects of modified food,” said Eric Sieden, director of nutrition at Plainview and Syosset hospitals.
Genetic tinkering often occurs with food crops, such as soybean or corn, when they are altered from their original makeup scientifically to resist insects, slow down the rotting process and for greater and stronger production and yield, explained Sieden.
Find out what's happening in Syossetfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
But, he added, GMOs have not been proven to be harmful.
“By Chipotle removing the GMO ingredients, such as soybean oil or the corn used for chips and other items, they are basically giving ‘piece of mind’ to their concerned customers but in reality not offering any proven health benefit.”
Find out what's happening in Syossetfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Denver-based company is now using GMO-free corn and oils. Chips and tortillas will be fried in sunflower oil, and rice and fajita vegetables will be prepared with rice bran oil.
Chipotle will still serve meat from animals fed with GMO feed and Coca-Cola fountain drinks, which are made with high-fructose corn syrup.
