According to the LA Times, Taco Bell is being sued over the beef in its tacos. The\u00a0class-action suit,\u00a0filed on behalf of\u00a0Amanda Obney,\u00a0claims that the chain restaurant’s “Taco Meat Filling” is only 36% beef… waaaay short of the standard definition of “beef.”<\/p>\n
The class-action suit, which does not ask for money, objects to Taco Bell calling its products “seasoned ground beef or seasoned beef, when in fact a substantial amount of the filling contains substances other than beef.”<\/p>\n
It says Taco Bell’s ground beef is made of such components as water, isolated oat product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate, as well as some beef and seasonings.<\/p>\n
Just 35 percent of the taco filling was a solid, and just 15 percent overall was protein, said attorney W. Daniel “Dee” Miles III of the Montgomery, Ala., law firm Beasley Allen, which filed the suit.<\/p>\n
“Taco Bell’s definition of ‘seasoned beef’ does not conform to consumers’ reasonable expectation or ordinary meaning of seasoned beef, which is beef and seasonings,” the suit says. Beef is the “flesh of cattle,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gizmodo has\u00a0a breakdown of the ingredients:<\/a><\/p>\n
Taco Bell “beef” pseudo-Mexican delicacies<\/em> are really made of a gross mixture called “Taco Meat Filling” as shown on their big container’s labels, like the one pictured here. The list of ingredients is gruesome.<\/p>\n
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.<\/em><\/p>\n
It looks bad but passable… until you learn that\u2014according to the Alabama law firm suing Taco Bell\u2014only 36%<\/em> of that is beef. Thirty-six percent<\/em>. The other 64% is mostly tasteless fibers, various industrial additives and some flavoring and coloring. Everything is processed into a mass that actually looks like beef, and packed into big containers labeled as “taco meat filling.” These containers get shipped to Taco Bell’s outlets and cooked into something that looks like beef, is called beef and is advertised as beef by the fast food chain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ok,\u00a0adjectives like “gross”\u00a0and “gruesome”\u00a0are a bit over-the-top – the list of additives is long, but there’s nothing there that isn’t perfectly edible or unusual (go look at the ingredients in any number of commercial seasoning mixes). It’s the percentage of actual beef that’s the real issue.<\/p>\n