Chipotle has enlisted data infrastructure company Palantir to develop a food safety risk platform, the companies confirmed in September 2026. The platform, hosted on Palantir’s Foundry software, analyzes store-level data — including health department scores, pest incidents, and employee illnesses — to generate a food safety risk score for each location.
Chipotle spokesperson Erin Wolford confirmed the initiative but declined to provide additional details. Palantir did not respond to a request for comment. The exact start date of the partnership and the extent of the platform’s deployment remain unknown.
The announcement comes during a turbulent period for US food safety. The FDA has identified more than 12,800 illnesses tied to foodborne outbreaks so far this year, largely driven by a cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce. While Chipotle was not affected by that outbreak — it does not serve iceberg lettuce — the chain did proactively pull jalapeños from a specific supplier in July after that supplier was connected to a salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 430 people.
Palantir already has a significant footprint in the food and beverage sector, with contracts including Tyson, General Mills, and the purchasing co-op for Wendy’s, where its software is used to flag potential ingredient shortages. The company’s US commercial revenue reached $764 million in its most recent quarter, a 149 percent year-over-year increase, with corporate clients now accounting for nearly half of its US business.
The partnership may draw scrutiny given Palantir’s separate government contracts, including work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigrants make up roughly a fifth of the restaurant industry workforce, and Chipotle itself fired hundreds of workers following an ICE audit in 2010 and 2011. In 2025, Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright acknowledged that employees could be affected by immigration enforcement, saying the company aimed to check in with workers to offer support.
Source: WIRED