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Chipotle just threw some serious shade at Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods

Chipotle has tested brisket. It has gone live with quesadillas and cauliflower rice after extensive testing.. Now, the burrito giants wants to tackle the surging world of plant-based meat and is apparently OK with taking a shot or two at industry leaders Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

The company revealed Thursday it has started testing plant-based chorizo at restaurants in Denver and Indianapolis. Instead of partnering with a Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods like others in fast food, Chipotle said it developed its own plant-based faux sausage.

The chorizo — which Chipotle says took a year to develop —includes: ancho chili, Chipotle peppers, tomato paste, crushed garlic, smoked paprika, olive oil and pea protein.

"Chipotle’s breakthrough new Plant-Based Chorizo has the deep rich flavor of Chorizo and is made with ingredients grown on a farm, not in a lab," Chipotle said in a statement, taking a thinly veiled shot at the development process at Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

The restaurant chain said it's still evaluating a national rollout of plant-based chorizo.

"Ongoing menu innovation continues to be a top priority for Chipotle and the brand is leveraging its stage-gate process to listen, test and learn from customer feedback, and iterate before deciding on a national launch strategy for Plant-Based Chorizo," Chipotle added.

Chipotle shares rose 1% in afternoon trading Thursday on the news. The stock continues to hover around record highs as Chipotle is fresh off a 31.2% same-store sales increase for the second quarter. Earnings for the quarter crushed analyst estimates, too.

On the other hand, Beyond Meat shares fell 2% on the news as it appears Chipotle may not become a customer in the near-term.

Impossible Foods, which remains a private company, recently unveiled a new sausage product of its own that the company's president, Dennis Woodside, talked about on Yahoo Finance Live earlier this month.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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