WASHINGTON — There’s good news for fans of Chipotle’s braised pork tacos. The company’s nearly 10-month-long carnitas shortage is just about over.
In January, the Denver-based company announced that one-third of its restaurants (roughly 1,800 locations) would experience a carnitas shortage after it discovered that one of its major pork suppliers was violating Chipotle’s animal welfare standards.
The company’s “Responsibly Raised” pork standards require pigs be raised with outdoor access or in deeply bedded pens, free of breeding, gestation and farrowing crates. Chipotle also requires all of its meat be free of antibiotics.
“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 on its website.
Many local D.C.-area locations were affected by the shortage. But with a new supplier, Karro Food in the United Kingdom, carnitas are back on the menu at 90 percent of Chipotle’s outposts — D.C.-area locations included.
The company says there is still a shortage in some cities in Florida, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but hopes to have the situation remedied by November.
h/t: Los Angeles Times
