DENVER, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Chipotle has recently removed pork from the menus of about 600 restaurants over concerns one of their supplier's treatment of pigs was inhumane, the company's website announced.
The restaurant chain said one of their animal welfare auditors found a pork supplier to be violating the chain's animal welfare standards and suspended the supplier, leaving about one third of its restaurants without pork. The decision affects South Dakota, Ohio, most of their restaurants in the South, and parts of the North East.
"When faced with a choice between serving conventional pork in some of our restaurants or nothing at all, we chose to not serve carnitas at all," the company said.
Chipotle's main demographic is millennials, and the company's Food with Integrity policy sets standards for the humane treatment of animals, as well as genetically modified food labeling that jibes with what millennials say they want.
The company did not name the supplier that was suspended, but did announce a replacement, a company in the United Kingdom called Karros. The new supplier, Chipotle said, was humane, but did use some antibiotics in veterinary care that Chipotle said would not be present in the meat.
"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 bedding and no ability to root, and are given antibiotics to keep them from getting sick," the company said on its website. "We would rather not serve pork at all than serve pork from animals that are raised in this way."
Demand for meat -- particularly pork -- raised in more humane ways was overwhelming the few farmers in the United States who practice it before Chipotle suspended one of its suppliers.
Jeff Tripician, executive vice president at Niman Ranch, Chipotle's largest supplier of pork, said he was contacted by the restaurant to help meet the extra demand. "If I double the number of hog farms in our system tomorrow, I think we would be sold out pretty soon," he said.
