One woman went viral after posting what appeared to be a green insect crawling around in her Chipotle bowl. The video, posted by Cece or @butterrgirll on TikTok, received more than 4.9 million views and 20,500 comments from disgusted viewers in three days.
"So I'm eating my Chipotle right," she said in the video. "I see something moving in my food so I had to empty it on a plate and make sure I wasn't trippin'."
Cece showed the contents of her Chipotle bowl poured out on a plate and attempted to zoom in on an individual piece of lettuce.
"It's right here y'all," she said as she pointed at the lettuce with her fork. "Look, it's moving."
Cece used her fork to move the piece of lettuce around and eventually revealed a green bug crawling around on the plate.
"What the hell is that?" she asked as she zoomed in on the insect. "Chipotle I need answers."
In the comments, people joked that they would not have been able to notice the bug because it blended in with the lettuce.
"I dead*ss woulda ate that cause I'm blind," one user wrote and received 142,000 likes.
Others mentioned that the insect looked like a lettuce aphid that live on unwashed lettuce.
"That actually comes from unwashed lettuce!" one user said. "Call corporate now! And don't let them try and give you free meals!"
Lettuce aphids are parthenogenic which allows them to reproduce without mating. The bugs can range in color from green to orange to pink. Some aphids also have wings, but not all do. The insects are notorious for camouflaging in fresh lettuce and can be hard to see with the naked eye.
In an update video, Cece said she went back to the Chipotle and asked to talk to the manager. The manager was not in but she was able to talk to the supervisor and explain her situation.
"I just ordered food from y'all and you got bugs in your food," she said she told the supervisor.
She asked if the supervisor would like to see the bug but they said no thank you and began apologizing and offered a refund for the food.
Many commenters said that Cece should have attempted to sue the restaurant chain or contacted corporate instead so she could have possibly received more compensation.
Another user in the comments claimed that they used to work at a Chipotle and had multiple problems with the lettuce.
"ITS THE LETTUCE!" the user commented. "I use to work for chipotle and it was ALWAYS something in the lettuce. Flies, ladybugs, i even seen a stink bug once."
In July, a woman claimed she found a beetle in her Chipotle burrito. In a viral TikTok video, Tori Kinley said that when she bit into her burrito she felt something crunchy.
"I was eating my burrito and I bit into something crunchy," Kinley explained. "I was like 'oh interesting' and I spit it out."
She said she assumed it was corn but a few bites later she bit into something else that was crunchy.
"I spit it out and I spit out a cockroach leg," she said.
She explained that she spit out the body of a cockroach but realized later that it was a beetle. She said she called poison control and they told her it is possible she will get food poisoning in the next few hours.
In another update about a month later, she said that Chipotle reached out to her and offered her free meals. In the comments, she said the incident occurred at a Chipotle in Estero, Florida.
Newsweek reached out to Cece and Chipotle for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Samantha Berlin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on trends and human-interest stories. Samantha ... Read more
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