The Chipotle Mexican Grill franchise gained an incredible amount of support and kudos for its bold move to go completely non-GMO, making it the first major restaurant chain to do so in the United States.

But the fast casual chain also opened itself up to vindicative columns from the pro-Monsanto establishment, as well as extra scrutiny over its ingredients and their sources.

Now, the company is staring down a lawsuit alleging that it kept serving foods with GMOs despite an advertising push proclaiming themselves to be GMO free.

According to this article on the website AdAge.com, however, Chipotle is firing back at its critics, calling the lawsuit “meritless” and seeking to clear the air with customers and the media.

Chipotle’s Classic Comeback

In a perfect world all food would be free from gene-spliced, genetically modified organisms such as plants like corn, soy and canola, but in the United States the food supply is already so contaminated that making such a switch is exceedingly difficult.

Because of this, proposed mandatory GMO labeling laws have always excluded meat and dairy products from animals fed GMOs, as there is a massive shortage of non-GMO animal feed in the domestic market.

The suit uses a timeline beginning on April 27, the day Chipotle announced the switch to non-GMO, and states that it has never been free of GMOs at any time considering its use of some meat from animals fed GMOs, as well as Coca Cola sodas that contain high fructose corn syrup and/or other potential GMO ingredients, as well as dairy from animals fed GMOs.

Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold has said that the chain will defend itself, pointing out numerous issues they have with the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit is meritless, and the complaint against Chipotle is filled with inaccuracies,” the statement reads.

“For instance, we have always been clear that our soft drinks contained GMO ingredients, and that the animals from which our meat comes consume GMO feed,” it continues.

“But, that does not mean that our meat is GMO, any more than people would be genetically modified if they ate GMO foods…”

To read Chipotle’s full statement, you can check out the article here from Ad Age. You can also learn more about how to avoid as much potential GMO material as possible (however minor) when you order at Chipotle by reading this article.