Chipotle has always advised on its website that vegetarian and vegan customers should avoid its pinto beans. The beans are cooked with "a small amount of bacon," unlike the Mexican chain's black beans, which are vegan. But in-store menus do not indicate the porkiness of the pinto, and Chipotle's burrito assemblers are instructed to inform customers of the bacon inclusion only if they order a burrito without other meat.
This policy meant that at least one regular Chipotle eater, Maxim senior editor Seth Porges, unwittingly ate lots of bacon over the past several years. Porges does not eat pork, as he said in a letter to Chipotle, "for religious and cultural reasons," and so was shocked to discover, after years of eating Chipotle's pinto beans, that it contained bacon. Consumerist reports that Porges tweeted about the shocking discovery, and also emailed Chipotle CEO Steve Ells, to complain. Ells responded immediately. He told Porges that the chain would change its menu to include a mention of the bacon in its pinto beans.
The timeframe for the menu change is unclear, but perhaps Chipotle will add the bacon notice when it starts offering brown rice and breakfast burritos nationwide -- or maybe as it rolls out its vegan-friendly garden blend option or its delicious new chorizo filling. Ells should also be thankful that Porges isn't a Hindu in need of costly spiritual cleansing after his irreligious consumption.
Here's the series of tweets that led to, and revealed, Chipotle's menu change.