Chipotle Mexican Grill, seeing the success of its Lifestyle Bowls, is now letting diners select their nutrition preferences to create a tailored menu.
The fast-casual this week launched a nutrition preferences filter on its app and website, allowing customers to select and save options such as vegan, Whole30, paleo and gluten- and soy-free to their profiles. Once selected, the chain’s 24 million rewards members and other digital users will see acceptable menu items flagged for their order.
“We’ve noticed over the years that the Chipotle menu is the easiest to customize to any nutrition or diet preference,” said Stephanie Perdue, VP of brand marketing. “We’ve seen it used by athletes, nutrition experts, you name it. We wanted to take that one step further on the app and provide that ease of filtering by different diets, different allergens.”
The full list of nutrition filter preferences is vegetarian, vegan, paleo, keto and Whole30, as well as those avoiding gluten, dairy, soy and sulphites.
“It’s in line with our mission to be as transparent with our ingredients and give customers as much control as possible,” Perdue said.
She said the chain may add nutrition filter options as trends change over time.
Chipotle introduced diet-specific Lifestyle Bowls in 2019 and expanded on that platform last year. Sales of those curated bowls, including vegan, keto and double protein options, have grown 484% since their debut, Perdue said.
That growth has come both from new customers who follow specific diets, as well as existing Chipotle diners, she said. The chain actively markets its offerings to Whole30 groups and other diet-specific organizations. It even retooled its chicken recipe to fit within the diet’s parameters, she added.
At many restaurants, she said, those consumers “don’t have access to an entire menu. When you go to Chipotle, they do.”
Chipotle’s digital product team worked on the nutrition filters for much of the year, Perdue said. Encouraging diners to log their food preferences has an added bonus for the chain: One-to-one marketing.
“This allows us to get to know our customers better,” Perdue said. “We can personalize menu recommendations better.”
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