Chipotle Says Social Media Photos Show Customers Excited About Portion Sizes

Interim CEO of Chipotle Scott Boatwright said the company has been seeing customers posting on social media about bigger portion sizes.

He addressed concerns about criticism of meager portion sizes during an earnings call on Tuesday.

"We know that portioning is a core equity of ours in the organization, and we are committed to ensuring that we give the right portion to every guest that walks into the building," he said.

"We've seen strong improvement even through our social channels of people now. It's a reverse of what we saw earlier in the year, around people posting big burritos, big bowls and really excited about portioning they're getting in the Chipotle brand," he said in a transcript of the call posted on MSN.com.

The company came under fire earlier this year after allegations it was skimping on portions spread online, with some customers recording workers making their orders and posting it on social media sites like TikTok, Forbes reported.

The customers filming would abruptly walk out of the store if they thought the Chipotle workers were cutting back on their portions, sparking rumors employees were told to boost the portions for customers who recorded them.

The Chipotle "hack" as it was called went viral even though the company denied the allegations, Forbes reported.

One TikTok video racked up 16.5 million views.

Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs and food safety officer at Chipotle, told Forbes in May that "there have been no changes in our portion sizes, and we have reinforced proper portioning with our employees."

She also said customers could customize their orders by telling employees they wanted larger or smaller portions, although any additions would cost slightly more.

Then-Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said in a July earnings call that the company examined portion sizes after the social media publicity.

"[W]e've always felt the key equity of Chipotle is these generous portion sizes, so we wanted to make sure we're executing consistently across the system," he said, according to Forbes.

"And we've probably found about 10% or more of restaurants that we really view as outliers that needed to be retrained, re-coached to be executing against what we believe are the right standards," he said.