Chipotle is adding new menu items to win over vegan and vegetarian customers, using an ingredient the CEO says ‘nobody’ knows about (CMG)

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• Chipotle is adding vegan and vegetarian options to the menu, with two new burrito bowls.
• The new menu items are part of the Lifestyle Bowls line that launched earlier this year and highlights buzzy dieting trends with the Paleo Salad Bowl, the Keto Salad Bowl, and the Whole30 Salad Bowl.
• The line of bowls allows Chipotle to "add" new menu items that use preexisting ingredients. 
• CEO Brian Niccol told Business Insider earlier this year that Chipotle hoped to use Lifestyle Bowls as a way to make customers more aware of certain ingredients, such as the vegan protein sofritas. 

Chipotle is adding vegan and vegetarian options to the menu, as the fast-casual chain tweaks its strategy. 

On Monday, Chipotle announced it is adding vegan and vegetarian bowls to the menu. The vegan bowl features sofritas, brown rice, black beans, tomato and corn salsas, and lettuce. The vegetarian bowl has fajita veggies, brown rice, pinto beans, tomato and corn salsas, sour cream, and guacamole. 

Chipotle

The bowls are an extension of its "Lifestyle Bowls" line, which launched in January and highlights buzzy dieting trends with the Paleo Salad Bowl, the Keto Salad Bowl, and the Whole30 Salad Bowl. All Lifestyle Bowls are available for purchase online or on the chain’s app. 

Chipotle has offered vegetarian and vegan options for years, launching Sofritas as a vegan protein in 2014. However, according to CEO Brian Niccol, the chain has struggled to make customers aware of what options are available on the menu. 

Read more: Chipotle is planning to add new items to the menu, but first it wants customers to figure out what ‘sofritas’ and ‘barbacoa’ are

"Our No. 1-selling meat is chicken," Brian Niccol told Business Insider in January. "When you ask people ‘Did you know we had carnitas, barbacoa, or sofritas?’ a lot of people are like, what is that?"

With the early success of Lifestyle Bowls, Niccol told Business Insider that the chain was looking for other items that could be repackaged and reintroduced to customers. 

"As we get ready to move into Lent or certain seasons where vegetarian or certain nonmeat opportunities present themselves, nobody even knows we have sofritas," Niccol said. "Frankly, even if they know we do have sofritas, a lot of them don’t even know that it is plant-based."

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SEE ALSO: Chipotle is adding new items to the menu, and it could be the key to finally convincing customers to come back to the chain

Source: Business Insider – ktaylor@businessinsider.com (Kate Taylor)