Chipotle is finding itself in hot waters after customers decided to sue for allegedly misleading them on the calorie content of their famous burritos. As reported on Newser, three customers felt “so full” after eating the popular Mexican food chain’s chorizo burritos that they had doubts about the label that the said burrito only had “300 calories” in them.
The chorizo burritos, available at Chipotle stores since October, contain chicken, pork sausage, rice, beans and cheese in a tortilla. In-store signs showing photos of the burrito contain the calorie count. According to an article from Slate, the chorizo itself really is 300 calories. But when all the other ingredients are added, the entire thing weighs in at around 1,050 calories – and that’s the computation from Chipotle’s online nutrition calculator.
The customers, who bought the burritos in Los Angeles, brought the class-action lawsuit against Chipotle, saying that they not only felt misled, but wronged by the information it presented.
One of the plaintiffs described that he “felt excessively full and realized that the burrito couldn’t have been just 300 calories.”
The lawsuit, brought in Los Angeles Superior Court by David Desmond, Edward Gurevich and Young Hoon Kim, covers “all people who bought food at Chipotle for four years leading up to the filing of the complaint.” This is because according to the customers, the chorizo signs point to a pattern of incorrect nutritional information propagated by the food company, My News LA reports. All three of the plaintiffs bought chorizo burritos at three separate Chipotle locations.
The men are seeking an undisclosed amount in damages and an injunction to stop Chipotle from putting supposedly inaccurate information on the nutritional value of its products on its menus, website, and marketing campaign material.
While Chipotle has not released an official statement on the matter yet, it did reply to customers via its official Twitter account, saying, “I’m sorry for the confusion, but we’ll make things more clear next time. The 300 calories is for the chorizo [alone].”
