Chipotle Is Testing Palantir’s Food Safety Platform to Track Restaurant Risks

The pilot uses Palantir Foundry to analyze health scores, pest outbreaks and employee illness across Chipotle restaurants.

Fast-casual burrito chain Chipotle is working with data infrastructure company Palantir on a new food safety risk platform.

How Chipotle’s Palantir food safety platform works

The company is using a “food safety risk platform” hosted on Palantir’s Foundry software, according to screenshots seen by WIRED. The platform appears to analyze factors including a restaurant’s health department score, pest outbreaks and employee illness before assigning each location a food safety score, or risk level.

It is unclear when the partnership began or how widely the platform has been rolled out. The pilot comes during a particularly serious period for food safety. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified more than 12,800 illnesses linked to foodborne-illness outbreaks so far this year, most of them associated with large Cyclospora outbreaks involving iceberg lettuce.

Chipotle does not offer iceberg lettuce and was not directly affected by the so-called Turbo Diarrhea outbreak or related recalls. However, in July, the company stopped providing jalapeños from certain suppliers after a Salmonella outbreak sickened more than 430 people.

“Chipotle is piloting a new food safety risk management platform designed to provide a more consistent and unified view of food safety risks across our restaurants,” Laurie Shallow, Chipotle’s chief executive officer and head of food safety, said in a statement. “The platform brings critical information together in one place, enabling teams to more effectively identify trends, prioritize follow-up, and make proactive, data-driven decisions.”

Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.

Palantir’s growing role in restaurant supply chains

Palantir offers a range of products for food and beverage companies. It has contracts with independent purchasing cooperatives for Tyson chicken and beef suppliers, cereal maker General Mills and fast-food chain Wendy’s.

Companies can use Palantir Foundry to manage inventory, automate orders and shipping, and track their supply chains. Wendy’s, for example, uses Palantir software to proactively identify potential ingredient shortages.

Palantir’s work with U.S. companies now accounts for nearly half of its U.S. business. The company reported in August that U.S. commercial revenue reached $764 million in its most recent quarter, a 149% increase from a year earlier.

Palantir’s food safety and government contracts

Palantir has also expanded its work with government agencies focused on supply-chain resilience and food safety. In 2022, the company partnered with the FDA under a $22 million contract.

Palantir is still best known for its contracts with government agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, ICE awarded the company a $30 million contract to build a surveillance platform providing visibility into people who are voluntarily deported.

Why the partnership is controversial in the restaurant industry

Palantir’s work with ICE can be particularly controversial in the restaurant industry. Immigrants make up about one-fifth of the restaurant workforce.

In 2010 and 2011, Chipotle laid off hundreds of workers who were found ineligible to work in the United States following an ICE audit.

In 2025, Chipotle CEO Scott Boatright said it would be “naive” to believe that Chipotle employees would not be affected “either directly or psychologically” by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

“I think it’s a really important time for us to connect with all the individuals in our organization as a mental check-in and ask them, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling? Is there anything I can do to help or support you?’” Boatwright told NBC News at the time.

Updated 9/16/26 at 3:43 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from Chipotle.