Size Matters: No, Chipotle Did Not Shrink Its Bowls to Make Portions Look Bigger
What happened: Chipotle critics are baselessly claiming on social media that the Mexican food chain reduced the size of the disposable fiber bowls in which it serves some menu items to make smaller portions appear larger, without lowering prices. The posts gained 7 million cumulative views on Reddit, X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
A closer look: The claim appears to have emerged in an April 21, 2025, Reddit post in the r/Chipotle subreddit board that stated, “New bowls today, They’re way smaller.” A photo showed a stack of the purportedly smaller bowls next to the ones that Chipotle uses for burrito bowls and salads at its 3,500 restaurants in the U.S.
The post gained 7,800 “upvotes,” or “likes,” as of April 25 before it was deleted by the poster.
Nevertheless, the image quickly spread on Reddit, X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, including by users who accused Chipotle of “shrinkflation” — a term for the practice of companies reducing portions without cutting prices.
X user @FatKidDeals posted a screenshot of the original Reddit post and photo, stating, “Damn, shrinkflation is real out here.” The post gained more than 320,100 views and 1,100 likes.
Actually: Chipotle denied the claim, and the image appears to be misleading.
The photo shows the “small” bowls from an angle so that their size and shape cannot be discerned. Even skeptical Reddit users called out the photo as problematic. For example, user Flat-Avocado-6258 wrote, “The only worse angle would’ve been with the [storage room] door just shut 😂😂.”
In response to @FatKidDeals’ post advancing the misleading image, the restaurant chain’s official X account, @ChipotleTweets, said in an April 22 post, “Don't worry: we haven't made any changes to our bowls.”
Chipotle responded to NewsGuard’s request for comment with a copy of a statement from Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Laurie Schalow, saying, “We have not made any changes to our bowls. … We have not changed our portion sizes, and we have reinforced proper portioning with our employees.”
In March 2025, Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said the company would not increase prices, even though impending Trump administration tariffs threatened to make key ingredients, including avocados, beef, and tomatoes, more expensive, Fortune (Trust Score: 100/100) reported. The company is owned by the publicly traded Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.