Los Angeles-Area Customers Sue Chipotle Over ‘300-Calorie’ Chorizo Burrito

Chipotle’s chorizo burrito as diet food? If you read the description of the menu item, available since October, you certainly wouldn’t think so: It packs chicken, pork sausage, rice, beans, and cheese into a tortilla.

Except that same sign also said “300 calories.” And so three customers who bought the burrito in Los Angeles this month are suing.

According to a statement from Abir Cohen Treyzon Salo, which announced the filing of a class action complaint against the fast food restaurant last Thursday, the suit alleges “inaccurate reporting of nutritional values of individual menu items it serves in its chain of more than 1200 restaurants across the United States.”

As City News Service reported, one of the men behind the proposed class-action lawsuit brought in Los Angeles Superior Court ordered the menu item on Nov. 3 thinking it was a 300-calorie dish.

David Desmond, one of the plaintiffs, “felt excessively full and realized that the burrito couldn’t have been just 300 calories” after eating it, according to the complaint. LV Anderson didthe math at Slate, and reported the true total is closer to 1,050 calories. (That’s par for the course at Chipotle, according to this 2015 New York Times article.)

The lawsuit would cover “all people who bought food at Chipotle for four years leading up to the filing of the complaint,” even though the chorizo filling is a new menu offering.

That reason is because the plaintiffs are alleging the signage is part of a pattern by the chain of presenting misleading nutritional information and “deceptive business practices,” according to the law firm’s statement.

In an interview with KTLA, attorney Danny Abir said the primary goal of the lawsuit is to force Chipotle to post accurate calorie counts and stop what he considered a practice of misleading its customers.

Chipotle has not released a statement, with a company spokesperson only telling KTLA that the business doesn’t typically talk about legal action.

However, Chipotle did reply to some customers who tweeted their disbelief about the calorie count: “I’m sorry for the confusion, but we’ll make things more clear next time. The 300 calories is for the chorizo [alone].”