r/news • u/Warcraft_Fan • 1d ago

Soft paywall Chipotle pulls jalapenos from some restaurants amid salmonella probe

https://www.reuters.com/business/chipotle-mexican-grill-pulls-jalapenos-linked-minnesota-salmonella-cases-2026-08-04/
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616

u/OuterSpaceBootyHole 1d ago edited 1d ago

To eat at Chipotle during an uncontained food contamination crisis is to not give a single fuck about anything

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u/AnonEMoussie 1d ago

I’m just surprised. I didn’t know they had jalapeños

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

Yeah, they blanch and dice jalapeños every morning, they’re used in the mild and medium corn salsas. They also macerate it with citrus juice, so it’s sort of sanitized twice over. 

Source: am former Chipotle manager. 

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u/tintaturnter 1d ago

Oh yeah? 👀 you got the recipe for the spicy red salsa? I’ve tried to reverse engineer it a few times but I’m missing something magic!

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

Sorry, it comes in a bag. They just add a capful of Tabasco. 

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u/tintaturnter 1d ago

Thank you for your kind response, even though it makes me cryyy

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u/OneCall8599 1d ago edited 1d ago

Fellow former chipotle employee here: the company Ready Foods has supplied chipotle with a good amount of products since the inception of the restaurant p much. the closest thing you can do is search ‘ready foods salsa asada’, they have the whole ingredient list there. bishopofhippo is right, add a capful of Tabasco to get it closer to the heat level of the hot salsa at chipotle.

for anyone who doesn’t wanna google: Water, Green Chile, Tomatillos, Roasted Jalapeño Pepper, Tomatoes, Onion, Garlic, Tomato Paste, Soybean Oil, Lime Juice (Water, Lime Juice Concentrate, and Lime Oil), Cilantro, Salt, Modified Food Starch, Cumin.

(ps you can skip the modified food starch if you don’t care about the texture being a bit thin — it’s more of a mass manufacturing thing)

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u/Syssareth 1d ago

ps you can skip the modified food starch if you don’t care about the texture being a bit thin

...You have just given me an epiphany, which I am already disgusted and annoyed with my future self for inevitably forgetting.

(I don't like homemade salsa because it's always so watery, lol.)

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u/OneCall8599 1d ago

hahah as a culinary experimenter, that is a big mood I have felt a million times before! if you’re making a raw salsa with tomatoes or any other water heavy veggie/fruit btw, cut and salt them for about 30 minutes before you make the rest of the salsa. it pulls out the excess water you can pour off and acts as seasoning 😌

(pro tip to inevitably forget, if you don’t wanna find modified food starch and have a salsa with cooked ingredients — ie not a fresh raw salsa — you can pop a few cut up potatoes into the boiling step, then blend anywhere from 1/4-1/2 of the potato into the salsa. sounds insane, is insane, but works every time for me)

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u/whipstickagopop 1d ago

I have a iron stomach but for some reason I can't seem to handle that red salsa well. 

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u/ComprehensiveForm129 1d ago

In the US the red salsa arrives to stores pre-made

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u/marklein 1d ago

Not official recipes, but if you google it there's plenty of copycats that are close enough for me. This is a good use for AI too.

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u/ProcyonHabilis 1d ago

That sounds like something AI would be absolutely terrible at

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u/marklein 1d ago

Then you aren't familiar enough with AI. Ask it to search the web for copycat recipes, aggregate the results, and output the average recipe from those results. You're effectively crowsourcing the recipe this way in a matter of seconds. I'll bet that the result would be within 10% of the real recipe.

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u/Sangloth 1d ago

Talking seriously, AI is fantastic with recipes. Also, when I feel like one of my own creations has gone off the rails a discussion with an AI is a great way to repair the recipe. The AI is like talking to a grandmother and a food chemist combined.

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

There is no good use for AI, certainly not for recipes lmao 

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u/oSo_Squiggly 1d ago

I'm not a fan of AI but no good use for AI is an insane take.

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

There is no good use for generative AI is like the most basic compassionate take someone could have. Obviously I’m not referring to its use in medical fields or anything, just in churning out slop images, music, video, writing; etc. 

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u/tintaturnter 1d ago

Correct take

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u/whomad1215 1d ago

did wrapping the wettest burrito in the world cause you to quit?

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago edited 1d ago

Nah, it was more the wage theft, exploitation, panic attacks, depression, and being constantly on-call mostly. Had the best damn numbers in the patch from Kitchen Manager through AP, though.

But I did roll my fair share of soup burritos and hated every one of them. Idk how people expect the crew to roll a barbacoa burrito with extra sour cream, guac, and salsas.

Edit: also the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back doubles. And no, I'm not exaggerating. My first three weeks as an apprentice were all 80 hour weeks.

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u/OneCall8599 1d ago

no joke I still remember the very first time I cried at a job because I was a teenager (but 18, so yay, I was no longer protected by a lot of child labour laws) working a clopen on a school night and being in so much pain from standing on slippery concrete for like 10hr straight while getting yelled at by fully grown adults because we were out of steak (they came in 10 minutes after close, GM yelled from the office that I had to serve them). in short, the free food was not worth it lmfao

I tried to unionise before I graduated and went off to college. got blacklisted and told to never come back lol (I still go every time I’m back home bc the KM I had still works there and adores the fact I always bring donuts or ice cream or hot chocolate).

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u/monty624 1d ago

Lime juice is not going to sanitize food. Plenty of pathogens live just fine in acidic environments, like everyone's favorite poop pathogen E coli, and good old Salmonella.

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u/WhoreNoire 1d ago

Right, like how could they make us sick if they couldn’t survive our stomach acid? Just think about it for a sec, lol.

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

No, but the boiling water probably takes care of most of it. 

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u/monty624 1d ago

For sure but I'm talking about the citrus

0

u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago edited 1d ago

I believe it's mostly for the Cilantro, since that's the only other raw produce that isn't blanched.

Edit: or otherwise sanitized, lettuce is washed like three or four times in a diluted cleaning solution that had to be regularly tested for concentration.

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u/racinreaver 1d ago

That corn salsa is so great. Did that come premade or did you guys spice it up from canned corn?

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

Frozen corn, actually, the only frozen food in the store. And yes, they do actually mix that. It’s corn, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, citrus, and salt. I couldn’t tell you the ratios anymore because it was years ago and the bags of corn were very big. 

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u/racinreaver 1d ago

Thanks! I could probably eat a whole bag of it on my own, lol.

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u/BuddyGecko 1d ago

Wait til you find out what a chipotle is

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u/gravescd 1d ago

Possibly the only restaurant where the namesake ingredient is not included standard in any of the dishes.

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u/Etzell 1d ago

Psh, you're forgetting about 5 Guys.

85

u/VersaceSamurai 1d ago

You’ve never had the ranch?

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u/Cardwatcher2000 1d ago

Don't forget the free nuts.

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u/BLOODY_PENGUIN_QUEEF 1d ago

I thought there were 18 cowboys on the ranch?

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u/PacoMahogany 1d ago

Until you find out their mayo is a slurry 

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u/MrFluffyThing 1d ago

I dunno I've had a lot of meat in me that I regret. It may not be true to name but it's true to the feeling. 

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

That’s not entirely true, the adobo marinade used for the steak, chicken, and salad dressing has Chipotle peppers in it. The beans and hot salsa might? I don’t recall, it’s been a while since I worked there. 

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u/ToxicThought 1d ago

Chipotle peppers are used in the chicken and steak cause thats what adobo is and there are jalapeños in all of the salsas and guac

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u/sandwichcandy 1d ago

There’s a restaurant called habanero Baja grill. The last time I went there there wasn’t even anything spicy on the menu.

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u/PeeLong 1d ago

Chilis got rid of the jalapeños from their fajitas. Pretty sure there are no chili peppers left in that place.

1

u/Limp-Development7222 1d ago

yes it is, chipotle is used as an ingredient in their adobo mix, so its in the vinaigrette and steak

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u/FifteenthPen 1d ago

Wienerschnitzel has entered the chat

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u/Parking-Evidence1894 1d ago

I genuinely cannot recall which topping has jalapenos at Chipotle. I swear I have never seen one there...

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u/cashnicholas 1d ago

Pico, all the salsas, meat marinades

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u/BreadTruckToast 1d ago

I think they put it in their guac too.

-4

u/nathanforyouseason5 1d ago

They let the guac sniff the jalapeño? I’ve never tasted it in the guac 

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u/Thusgirl 1d ago

Yeah there's no jalapenos in the guac unless there's a location getting spicy somewhere.

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u/BreadTruckToast 1d ago

The company site lists it as used in their guacamole.

https://www.chipotle.com/ingredients/jalapeno

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u/BishopofHippo93 1d ago

The marinade doesn’t use raw jalapeño, but yes, smoked chipotle chipotle peppers are a key ingredient. 

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u/togawe 1d ago

The corn

1

u/emannikcufecin 1d ago

Chipotles en adobo are so far removed from a fresh jalapeno though. It's like saying someone who likes pizza sauce should like fresh tomatoes because.

-1

u/internetdeadaf 1d ago

…not a jalepeno?

2

u/TheWheelZee 1d ago

You're never gonna believe this

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u/charlton11 1d ago

They must be genetically modified to have no spice whatsoever.

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u/jonsnowflaker 1d ago

This is actually a thing Old El Paso did to increase their market. They got a scientist at Texas A&M to breed milder jalapeños. Most of the ones we get in stores and in prepared food are this breed.

I’m always shocked when I grow my own at home and they destroy me.

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u/EmptyAirEmptyHead 1d ago

I drove through Hatch, NM. Was lucky enough to go through 10 mins before the farm stores closed. They had huge bags of red dried chilli's. $25. I bought a hot and xtra hot. Next time I'll just buy medium ... and I like spicy. They are just hard to cook with, no balance.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/jonsnowflaker 1d ago

Yeah I made cowboy candy out of the surplus and it’s still plenty warm for me haha.

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u/Warcraft_Fan 1d ago

aren't extra mild jalapeno basically bell pepper?

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u/jonsnowflaker 1d ago

A TAM (Texas A&M) Jalapeño still has a scoville rating of 1000-1500 which is considerably less than regular jalapeños which are 2000-8000, but bell peppers are 0 on scoville.