Chipotle Is Working With Palantir to Track Food Safety Risks
Chipotle Is Working With Palantir to Track Food Safety Risks. The company is working on a “food safety risk platform” hosted on Palantir’s flagship software platform Foundry, according to screenshots viewed by WIRED.
What happened
The burrito chain has enlisted Palantir for a platform that monitors pest incidents, employee illnesses, and other factors. The partnership comes after a nightmare summer for food safety across the US. Skip to main contentSave this storySave this storyFast-casual burrito chain Chipotle is working with the data infrastructure giant Palantir. “Chipotle is piloting a new Food Safety Risk Management Platform designed to provide a more consistent and centralized view of food safety risk across our restaurants,” said Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, in a statement.
The platform appears to analyze factors like a store’s health department scores, pest incidents, and employee illnesses to assign a food safety score—basically, the store’s risk level. It's not known exactly when the partnership started or how widely the platform has been deployed, but it comes amid a particularly disastrous period for food safety. Palantir has substantial offerings aimed at food-and-beverage companies, with contracts with poultry and beef supplier Tyson, cereal giant General Mills, and the independent purchasing co-op for the fast-food chain Wendy’s.
The company has also done significant work with government entities focused on supply chains and food safety, including a $22 million contract with the FDA in 2022.
The wider picture
Are you a current or former Chipotle or Palantir employee who wants to talk about what’s happening? Paresh DaveHow NASA Testing Changed US Food Inspection ForeverIn the early 20th century, public outcry following Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle led to stricter food safety protocols. Maxwell ZeffSalmonella Is EverywhereFrom granola to guacamole, a wide variety of foods have been recalled lately over salmonella risks. Skip to main contentSkip to navigation JD Vance advised frontier AI companies to ‘look inward’ when it came to safety risks.
Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/ReutersView image in fullscreenJD Vance advised frontier AI companies to ‘look inward’ when it came to safety risks. Vance has said he suspects AI leaders of raising the alarm about safety risks as a “Trojan horse”. Zuckerberg stressed: “[AI] labs face significant liability if their models cause harm, so they have a strong incentive to prevent this as well. ”Explore more on these topicsAnthropicJD VanceAI (artificial intelligence)ComputingSilicon ValleyOpenAISam AltmannewsShareReuse this contentMore on this storyMore on this story‘Godfather of AI’ says tech regulation is nearing Covid-style pivot momentTrump facing AI backlash in Congress as push for guardrails intensifiesFull StoryAI isn’t going to end humanity. . . right? – Full Story podcastCould AI really wipe out humanity – six experts spell out the risksEurope must build own AI or risk getting cut off by US or China, says ECB’s LagardeAI-linked stocks slide after tech bosses call for slowdown in ‘reckless’ developmentOpenAI urges UK lawmakers to rein in technology amid growing safety fears OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back calls to put brakes on ‘reckless’ AI developmentUK lawmakers urge Burnham to back ban on superintelligent AI after chilling warningsAnthropic details bad actors’ efforts to misuse its AI for bioweaponsMost viewedMost viewed
Illustration: wildpixel/Getty ImagesExplainerCould AI really wipe out humanity – six experts spell out the risksWe examine claims and counterclaims about the risks and calls to slow down the pace of AI developmentThere have been some shocking claims in recent days about AI safety: we face a 10% chance of doom; AIs are worse than nukes; a “botnet” threatens the entire internet; it’s all a big tech psyop.
What has been reported
The US Food and Drug Administration identified more than 12,800 illnesses tied to foodborne outbreaks so far this year, most from a massive cyclospora outbreak connected to iceberg lettuce. Chipotle was not directly impacted by the turbo diarrhea outbreak or the related recall, since it doesn’t serve iceberg lettuce. “The platform brings key information together in one place, enabling our teams to more effectively identify trends, prioritize follow-up, and make proactive, data-informed decisions. ” Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.
Companies can use Foundry to manage inventory, automate ordering and delivery, and track their supply chains. At Wendy’s, for example, Palantir’s software is used to spot potential ingredient shortages before they occur. Palantir’s work with corporate America now accounts for nearly half of its US business. But Palantir remains best known for its other government contracts, including its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, ICE awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to build a surveillance platform that provided visibility on people self-deporting.
What happens next
Palantir’s work with ICE has the potential to be particularly controversial in the restaurant industry, where immigrants make up roughly a fifth of the workforce. In 2010 and 2011, Chipotle fired hundreds of workers who were ineligible to work in the US, following an ICE audit. In 2025, Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said it would be “naive” to believe that Chipotle employees would not be impacted by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, “whether that’s directly or psychologically. ”“I think it’s a really important moment for us to connect with all individuals in our organization, as a mental check-in, to say, hey, how are you doing, how are you feeling, is there anything we can do to help or support? ” Boatright told NBC News at the time.
Update 9/16/26 3:43 pm ET: This story has been updated with comment from Chipotle. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates. View image in fullscreenAnthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, issued a drastic warning about AI safety risk over the weekend. OpenAI, which lost control of hundreds of AI agents during testing this summer which then conspired to hack into the Hugging Face website, said on Monday it was backing bipartisan efforts by lawmakers in Washington to address catastrophic risks from AI and it has been coordinating with Google and Anthropic.
The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across wired.com, theguardian.com. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.