The mexican food brand, Chipotle has been awarded with a Gluten Free accreditation. The chain restaurant has six restaurants dotted around London alone, including Soho, Baker Street, Islington and The City. Chipotle have managed to gain a gluten free accreditation from Coeliac UK for all of the chain’s sites in London.
The restaurant chain only has one item on the menu that has gluten in it, which is the tortilla of differing sizes used to form a burrito or taco. This one ingredient can be easily omitted for those that are following a gluten free diet and can still enjoy the full flavour of Chipotle by ordering a burrito bowl, the corn tacos or a salad.
In order to achieve this accreditation, Chipotle has been working with Coeliac UK. The process to be awarded with the certification includes a number of audits and staff training in order to make sure that the service offered is of the correct standard. Coeliac UK is a charity that has been set up to help those who are living with a gluten intolerance. It has been calculated that one in 100 people in the UK are living with coeliac disease. However it is estimated that only 24% of these people have actually been diagnosed. The only treatment for coeliac disease is to completely omit gluten from their diet for the rest of their lives.
With those that have this dietary restriction, wanting to eat out comes with concerns about safety. Therefore such a large restaurant chain gaining this accreditation is good news and hopefully more restaurants and businesses operating in the hospitality industry will follow suit. Coeliac UK is also working in partnership with companies in the hospitality industry in order to help them when catering for those with a gluten free diet. The work the charity does will also improve the menu choices for those wich coeliac disease.
