Chipotle's CEO responds to claims portion sizes are shrinking as he announces major change

Chipotle's CEO has responded to claims portion sizes are shrinking amid a wave of criticism from disgruntled customers.

Brian Nicol denied that he had instructed staff to scrimp with servings as he revealed the company will be instituting changes to ensure satisfaction.

'First, there was never a directive to provide less to our customers,' Niccol said during an earnings call Wednesday, CNN reports.

'With that said, getting the feedback caused us to relook at our execution across our entire system.' 

He revealed Chipotle will be retraining its staff to ensure 'generous portions' are consistent across its more than 3,500 stores.

'We are reemphasizing training and coaching around ensuring we are consistently making bowls and burritos correctly,' Niccol said. 

It came after Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem and his team set out to test the theory that Chipotle has been skimping on its usually-large portions, following a series of videos posted to TikTok showed employees barely filling their burrito bowls.

The team ordered and weighed 75 bowls from eight locations across New York City, and kept variables the same by ordering the same ingredients - white rice, black beans, chicken, pico de gallo, cheese and lettuce, according to Barrons.

They were stunned to find huge variation across the locations, with some serving bowls that weighed up to 33 percent more than others.

The largest burrito bowl the team ordered came out to 27 ounces, while the smallest was just 14 ounces.

Among all 75 burrito bowls - which were divvied out for Wells Fargo analysts' lunches - the median weight was about 21.5 ounces.

Fadem's study comes after months of TikTokers claiming that Chipotle workers were skimping on their ingredients.

The trend began in early May, when Keith Lee - a former mixed martial arts fighter and TikTok food critic who has more than 16million followers on the app - posted a video showing him digging into a burrito bowl, and seemingly not finding any of the chicken he ordered.

'These portions be crazy,' he said in the video. 

Later that month, another influencer, Isaac Francis, filmed himself ordering at Chipotle and indignantly asking for more rice and chicken.

He wrote in the caption of the video that he 'couldn't let' the employee 'disrespect me with that protein size'.

However, employees soon hit back at the 'dehumanizing' trend, saying being filmed a work was causing them stress. 

Laurie Schalow, Chipotle's chief corporate affairs officer, also told CNN that bowl sizes may vary by the number of ingredients a customer chooses or if they opt to make any ingredient 'light' or 'extra light.'

But Nicol said customers were free to ask for more of any topping, stating that he wants his clientele to be 'excited' by the food. 

However, the controversy has not harmed Chipotle's sales, which beat analysts' expectations to rise by around 18 percent in the second quarter.