In April 2011, the criminal division of the attorney general's office in Washington, D.C., joined the case, and ICE agents began interviewing employees at 20 to 25 restaurants in other locations, such as Los Angeles and Atlanta.

[62] The newer restaurant concepts did not perform as well as expected, so ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen and Tasty Made were closed in March 2017[63] and February 2018[64] respectively, leaving only Pizzeria Locale operating besides the parent company.

In February 2023, Chipotle opened their first Farmesa Fresh Eatery in Santa Monica, California, serving bowls containing customers' choice of a protein, a green or grain, two sides, a topping, and a selection of up to five sauces.

[65][66] In July 2023, Chipotle exited the highly competitive pizza restaurant industry by announcing that they were closing all of their remaining Pizzeria Locale locations and would "dissolve the business".

[better source needed][12][72][failed verification] In July 2023, the company announced it would partner with the Kuwait-based Alshaya Group in its first-ever franchise deal to expand into the Middle East.

[99] At that time, the board of directors consists of: Ells, Patrick Flynn, Albert Baldocchi, Neil Flanzraich, Darlene Friedman, Stephen Gillet, Kimbal Musk and John Charlesworth.

[114] In July 2023, the company announced it was testing a robot developed to cut the time to prepare avocados for guacamole in half amid an ongoing labor shortage.

The price of each item is based on the choice of chicken, pork carnitas, barbacoa, steak, tofu-based "sofritas",[116][117] or vegetarian (with guacamole or queso, which would be at an extra charge otherwise).

Additional optional toppings are offered free of charge, including: rice, beans, four types of salsa, fajita vegetables, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce.

[132] In 2013, Chipotle began testing the tofu-based "sofritas" option (made by Hodo Soy) in Northern California restaurants; following its successful trial, it was rolled out nation-wide in 2014.

[133][134] In June 2015, Chipotle began test marketing a pork and chicken chorizo-type sausage as a new protein option at selected locations in the Kansas City area.

It was an effort to engage fans and haters of the herb that, "plays into a larger trend of turning digital moments into real life experiences," according to Chris Brandt, Chipotle's Chief Marketing Officer.

[156] Chipotle's vegetarian options include rice, black beans, fajita vegetables (onions and bell peppers), salsa, guacamole, queso and cheese.

The samples they ranged from 14oz to 27oz with a median weight of 21.5oz[161] In 1999, while looking for ways to improve the taste of the carnitas,[13] founder Steve Ells was prompted by an article written by Edward Behr to visit Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

"[166] In September 2009, Chipotle announced that it would sidestep partnership with the CIW and instead work directly with East Coast Growers and Packers to increase wages for its tomato pickers.

[169] In January 2015, Chipotle pulled carnitas from its menu in a third of its restaurants; company officials cited animal welfare problems at one of the suppliers, found during a regular audit, as the reason.

[171] The company still uses antibiotic-free and hormone-free steak in its restaurants, despite being briefly forced to "serve beef that is not naturally raised" during the summer of 2013, posting an in-store notice each time that occurred.

[177][178] MarketWatch wrote that the result of all of these outbreaks will be to force Chipotle to obtain their produce from larger corporate farms that can afford the more extensive microbial food-safety testing programs and to process vegetables at centralized locations instead of at the individual stores, both of which are industry-standard practices that the company had previously criticized.

[180] A writer for the magazine Popular Science pointed out that Chipotle had publicly acknowledged that they "may be at a higher risk for food-borne illness outbreaks than some competitors due to our use of fresh produce and meats rather than frozen, and our reliance on employees cooking with traditional methods rather than automation".

[181][182][183] Other observers have argued that the variety of pathogens implicated in different incidents (Salmonella, E. coli, and norovirus) points towards a systemic problem,[184] and that the use of manure to grow organic food can increase the risk of spreading bacteria like E.

[185] In December 2015, Seattle health officials closed a Seattle-area Chipotle for a day after it had repeatedly had small numbers of violations during recent consecutive inspections that previously would not have generated a closure order.

[198] In an unusual move, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration had gotten a federal grand jury to issue a subpoena in January 2016 as part of a criminal investigation seeking documents and information from Chipotle concerning the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak.

However, Ventura County officials had been criticized for their handling of parts of their investigation, and for allowing the restaurant to continue to operate after finding health violations during consecutive inspections.

[203][204] The Minnesota Department of Health reported that samples from 45 victims were tested and found that their illness was caused by the Salmonella Newport bacterium as determined by DNA profiling.

At that time, an epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health said the culprit appeared to be a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli bacterium, but they were still waiting the outcome of several laboratory tests before they could give a definitive result.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on December 21 that five more people became ill after eating at two Chipotle restaurants located in Kansas and Oklahoma in late November.

[241][242] The following month, the company later revealed that 2,250 restaurants in 47 states were involved which could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of customers who may had their credit or debit card account information with security codes stolen.

[248] In July 2017, Gainesville, Florida, police reported that an unidentified person took more than $17,000 from an ATM at a local credit union by stealing from 40 different accounts that can be traced directly to the data breach.

[273] On September 12, 2013, Chipotle released an animated short called The Scarecrow, with a companion mobile video game; both feature a narrative heavily critical of industrial farming, but little in the way of direct marketing for the chain.

[291] In July 2021, Chipotle rolled out limited edition gold foil at participating locations to celebrate American athletes competing in Tokyo at the 2020 Summer Olympics.