Lawsuit Claims Taco Bell's Meat is Only 35% Actual Beef
It could be time to tell your drunk friends to stay away from a late night stop at Taco Bell – that is if they're wanting meat inside their tacos.
A lawsuit brought on by a firm in Alabama argues that Taco Bell's claim of using real beef in all their food is false, because 65% of the stuff inside those taco shells is "filler."
The law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles out of Montgomery, Alabama claims Taco Bell's customers are only getting 35% meat, while the rest of their burrito is stuffed with "binders, extenders and other ingredients, including "water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch."
Here is an actual breakdown according to the packaging label:
Beef, water, isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin (a polysaccharide that is absorbed as glucose), soybean oil (anti-dusting agent), garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, caramel color, cocoa powder, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), natural flavors, yeast, modified corn starch, natural smoke flavor, salt, sodium phosphate, less than 2% of beef broth, potassium phosphate, and potassium lactate.
Additionally, according to the USDA, Taco Bell can't call this mixture "beef" at all. Beef is officially defined as "flesh of cattle", and ground beef is defined as:
Chopped fresh and/or frozen beef with or without seasoning and without the addition of beef fat as such, shall not contain more than 30 percent fat, and shall not contain added water, phosphates, binders, or extenders.
Okay, so that that sounds like an exceedingly disgusting combination, but Taco Bell has fired back against the allegations, saying that they've always used 100% real beef in everything they make.
"We start with 100 percent USDA-inspected beef. Then we simmer it in our proprietary blend of seasonings and spices to give our seasoned beef its signature Taco Bell taste and texture," a Taco Bell representative wrote to MNN.com. "We are proud of the quality of our beef…Unfortunately, the lawyers in this case elected to sue first and ask questions later -- and got their “facts” absolutely wrong. We plan to take legal action for the false statements being made about our food.”
With both sides saying completely opposite things, it'll be an interesting battle to say the least. Here's hoping that Taco Bell is indeed in the right and hasn't been lying to every college student who stops in at 1 AM on a Saturday night…
I guess this all gives a whole new meaning to the Wendy's marketing campaign, Where's the Beef??
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