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Holy guacamole! Chipotle may stop selling it?

Ed Brackett
USA TODAY
  • But%3A %27Fret not guac lovers%2C%27 Chipotle spokesman tweets
  • Regulatory filing says %27weather volatility%27 may affect availability of avocados%2C other ingredients
  • Spokesman calls the disclosure a routine regulatory filing

Chipotle says it may stop selling guacamole, at least temporarily, as the Mexican menu fast-food chain chain grapples with an avocado shortage it blames partly on climate change.

A Chipotle in Miami.

But a company spokesman says not to "read too much into" a statement given to regulators.

In dry language, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing in February doles out a climate-connected scenario dubbed "guacpocalypse" by some.

The company was more conversational and direct in spreading the word Wednesday afternoon that customers shouldn't worry.

"Fret not guac lovers," Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold tweeted.

"This is a non-issue," he told USA TODAY. "The sky is not falling."

The storyline stems from a note in the "risk factors" section of Chipotle's annual report "and is nothing more than routine and required disclosure," he said. The company's had similar notes each of the last five years, he added.

And Chipotle has seen avocado shortages in the past and still found a way to keep serving the green stuff, he said.

Denver-based Chipotle says in the filing that "in the event of cost increases with respect to one or more of our raw ingredients, we may choose to temporarily suspend serving menu items, such as guacamole or one or more of our salsas."

Doing so "could also have an adverse impact on our brand," the filing says.

Of the climate connection, the company says in the filing: "Increasing weather volatility or other long-term changes in global weather patterns, including any changes associated with global climate change, could have a significant impact on the price or availability of some of our ingredients."

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