Hundreds of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants pulled pork from their menus this week after a supplier violated the chain's standards.
A routine audit Friday revealed the supplier's violations, which involved the
housing for the pigs, The Associated Press reported. The restaurant chain suspended the supplier, which provides pork for about a third of its restaurants, and doesn’t know how long the stores will be without pork.
Chipotle requires suppliers to raise pigs humanely, with access to the outdoors, the AP said. The company previously has posted notices when beef it serves doesn’t meet its standards of being raised without antibiotics or hormones. This is the first time the company has eliminated a topping from its menu.
"This is fundamentally an animal welfare decision, and is rooted in our unwillingness to compromise our standards where animal welfare is concerned,"
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told ABC News.
Pork accounts for 6 or 7 percent of entrée orders, and chicken is the most popular choice among customers.
"Conventionally raised pigs generally do not have access to the outdoors, spend their lives in densely crowded buildings, live on hard, slatted floors with no ability to root and are given antibiotics to keep them from
getting sick," Arnold said, according to Bloomberg. "We would rather not serve pork at all than serve pork from animals raised in that way."
Twitter users had mixed reactions.
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