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How much actual beef is in Taco Bell food? 36%

Unbreakable

Unbreakable

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http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=13885025

When is beef not beef? Ala. law firm sues Taco Bell

The USDA defines "beef" as "flesh of cattle."

The definition as read in the lawsuit states "Ground beef" "shall consist of 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."

The USDA policy book requires food labeled as "taco filling" to contain "at least 40 percent fresh meat," and the label must show the true product name.

In containers shipped to Taco Bell stores, not seen by consumers, the label reads: "Taco Meat Filling."

Beasley Allen law firm adds that what Taco Bell is marketing as beef only contains 36% meat.
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ewww
 
Think I've herad that before. Pretty gross. And you wonder why taco bell does a number on your stomach.
 
it's just brown and water

taco bell only last about a year in sydney.
 
Eventually, mainstream fast food will be vegan, out of cost concerns. :p
 
cardboard has feelings too!

save the boxes!
 
first of all i feel obligated to tell you that i do in fact work for taco bell. i've only been working there about three months though.

this whole thing is blown pretty out of proportion. [edit--see my next post in this thread. the only people claiming that taco bell's meat is 36% beef are the people that are suing them! since the news article and the lawyers themselves seem to be using cliches about inexpensive fast food to their advantage, let me say this--aren't lawyers usually pretty money/fame hungry?]

the actual ingredients are:

Beef, Water, Seasoning [Isolated Oat Product, Salt, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Oats (Wheat), Soy Lecithin, Sugar, Spices, Maltodextrin, Soybean Oil (Anti-dusting Agent), Garlic Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Silicon Dioxide, Natural Flavors, Yeast, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Smoke Flavor], Salt, Sodium Phosphates. CONTAINS SOYBEAN, WHEAT
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if you didn't know, ingredients lists like this are ordered so the ingredient that makes up the largest portion is first, the second largest portion is second, etc.

the number one ingredient is beef (again, processed to reduce fat content). the second ingredient is WATER. if the third one, oat product, makes you raise an eyebrow then you've gotta be pretty paranoid. i'm pretty sure the isolated oat product is mainly there as a replacement for all that unhealthy beef fat, don't quote me on that though.

the number four ingredient is salt. i'm not sure how much salt is in one portion of beef, but i do know that one hard shell beef taco has 330mg of sodium, or 13% of the recommended daily allowance... and a lot of the sodium in that taco is from the corn taco shell.

i don't have better numbers to use for the following example, so i'm going to use these: a hard taco weighs 78 grams, and the salt content is 330mg. that means a hard taco is 0.4% sodium by weight. if we assume that this4 is roughly the same percentage of sodium in the ground beef alone, then we see that 99.6% of the taco meat filling is made of (primarily) beef, (secondarily) water, and (tertiarily) isolated oat product. this makes it seem to me that the meat filling must not be too unhealthy, unless they do some really crazy shit to that oat.

the rest of the seasonings are pretty typical of most taco beef seasonings (like the packets you can get at the grocery store). the only ingredients that i see that might be eyebrow raising are silicon dioxide and sodium phosphates. sodium phosphate is a preservative. as for silicon dioxide:

I heard a rumor that there's sand in your taco meat

This is completely false. The truth is that what has been referred to as "sand" is in fact silicon dioxide. Silicon dioxide:
is a safe, common food ingredient often used in spices, seasonings, and many restaurant and packaged foods;
is primarily used in food to prevent ingredients from sticking together;
Is a naturally occurring mineral, often found in water, leafy green and root vegetables, cooked dried beans, whole grains, cereals, and fruits;
Can be found in many kitchen pantries across America, often in mashed potato and rice mixes, coffee, soups, and many spices and seasonings;
Is approved for use in food by the Food and Drug Administration here;
Like many in the food business, we use silicon dioxide in the seasonings and spices for our taco meat. When cooked, our beef contains about .0005% (that is, five ten-thousands of one percent) of this ingredient, far less than the FDA limit of 2%. Furthermore, we use certified organic silicon dioxide. It is not artificial and is not a preservative.
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i'm vegetarian btw and i don't even eat the beef at taco bell anyway =p i know it seems weird at first that i work at taco bell being vegetarian, but there aren't many jobs in my town. i actually decided to work at taco bell because it is one of, if not the, most vegetarian friendly restaurant around here. you can substitute beans or rice for meat in any of our items at no extra cost. besides the obvious example of meat the only other ingredient we use that isn't vegetarian friendly is our sour cream, which has gelatin in it (a meat byproduct). however, you can substitute vegetarian guacamole instead of sour cream at no extra cost as well. :)

most fast food restaurants have either one or zero vegetarian items that are actually semi-nutritious. even most up-scale restaurants around here only have a handful of vegetarian items. however, with the meat to beans/rice policy at taco bell there are just as many vegetarian items as non-vegetarian items.
 
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the main reason our "taco meat filling" is only 36% ground beef is because it gets processed in a way that removes most of the fat from the beef.
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It's still only 36% and the cut-off is 40%. They're obviously selling the cheapest meat they can possibly get away with. McDonald's patties are 100%. So Taco Bell is like a third of the quality of McDonald's. That's pretty shitty food.
 
Beef, Water, Seasoning [Isolated Oat Product, Salt, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Oats (Wheat), Soy Lecithin, Sugar, Spices, Maltodextrin, Soybean Oil (Anti-dusting Agent), Garlic Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Silicon Dioxide, Natural Flavors, Yeast, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Smoke Flavor], Salt, Sodium Phosphates. CONTAINS SOYBEAN, WHEAT
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Wow. I am so amazed that people actually pay money for this shit.
 
i don't see how its obvious that they are selling the cheapest meat they can "get away with."

mcdonalds is 100% processed beef. it also is a patty meant for a burger. meat for filling tacos is mixed with either water or tomato sauce (which also has a lot of water), and so obviously is never going to be 100% beef.

also, the law firm that is suing taco bell are the ones that claim that our meat is 36% beef. i'm not sure how they came to that conclusion, but the fact that they are trying to sue taco bell (to their financial gain) should make their findings somewhat suspect.
 
I skimmed the lawsuit.

To answer your question, there are various extenders in the recipe that are used simply as cheap alternatives to meat in order to save costs.

Taco meat filling includes ingredients added to increase the volume of the product, such as binders and extenders like “isolated oat product.”
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You were defending the nutritional value of the isolated oat products before, but that's not really the point. When you order good food, it shouldn't be diluted with cheap crap.

i don't see how its obvious that they are selling the cheapest meat they can "get away with."
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Look harder.

mcdonalds is 100% processed beef. it also is a patty meant for a burger. meat for filling tacos is mixed with either water or tomato sauce (which also has a lot of water), and so obviously is never going to be 100% beef.
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McDonald's doesn't add extenders to their patty meat. They could, in the same way that Taco Bell does in order to save a couple of bucks, but they don't.

Also a large part of the lawsuit is Taco Bell's false advertising.

What McDonald's says is beef, is beef.

What Taco Bell says is seasoned beef, is not seasoned beef.

I know you work there and everything, but face it. The food is shit.
 
the one or two time i went to a taco bell, when it had its short run here in sydney, i couldn't believe the cheese. it was like watery plastic. what was up with that?
 
haha both!
but that was actually a superb simpsons line about school lunchroom gravy.

and here's another relevant one...
RaAhBBk4Thy43k5abB9bJ1Roo1_500.png

"there's very little meat in these gym mats"

=D
 
thenightwatch said:
okay seriously why? what is it in that ingredients list that makes you say that? those ingredients are pretty typical for taco meat of any sort.
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Are you kidding? Did you READ the ingredients? Have you ever eaten REAL food?

Sorry to sound condescending. It just blows my mind and honestly makes me feel a bit sad for you if you think that is real food. I should cook you dinner.

How I would make taco meat:

Take real ground meat, put it in a pan and cook it til brown. While it is browning I'd ad chopped up garlic, onion, dried ground chili's, maybe some cilantro. Some cumin and other spices. Let it all simmer together in the juices, drain off the excess and there you have it, real taco meat.

Why the hell should soy/wheat be in a MEAT dish? And why the hell should modified corn starch, Maltodextrin, etc be in ANYTHING?

This is exactly why I'm amazed/horrified. People think this shit is normal.
 
MynameisnotDeja said:
Are you kidding? Did you READ the ingredients? Have you ever eaten REAL food?

Sorry to sound condescending. It just blows my mind and honestly makes me feel a bit sad for you if you think that is real food. I should cook you dinner.

How I would make taco meat:

Take real ground meat, put it in a pan and cook it til brown. While it is browning I'd ad chopped up garlic, onion, dried ground chili's, maybe some cilantro. Some cumin and other spices. Let it all simmer together in the juices, drain off the excess and there you have it, real taco meat.

Why the hell should soy/wheat be in a MEAT dish? And why the hell should modified corn starch, Maltodextrin, etc be in ANYTHING?

This is exactly why I'm amazed/horrified. People think this shit is normal.
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Now thats a REAL taco :D You can come make dinner for me! That sounds awesome.

My dad makes pretty amazing tacos too, he always makes the salsa fresh to go in them, so everything, even down to that, is fresh and home made and 100% REAL! No rocks in my meat, thankyouverymuch. Yummy. That is definitely the way to go.
 
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