Thread: Taco Bell beef faked?

Taco Bell beef faked? No more than the rest of the FDA-approved toxic food supply
Saturday, January 29, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
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(NaturalNews) The word spread like wildfire across the internet: An Alabama law firm had filed a class action lawsuit against Taco Bell in California, saying its meat fails to meet the definition of beef set forth by the U.S. government (and even that's a pretty low hurdle, if you ask me). The lawsuit claims Taco Bell's meat cannot be honestly advertised as "beef" because it claims tests showed the meat was only 35% beef, not the 70% beef required by federal standards.

"It's mainly soy and oats, and there's lots of other stuff in there that I don't even know how to pronounce," said attorney Dee Miles.

Taco Bell responded quickly, saying their meat was "88% beef" and that they buy the same brand of beef sold in supermarkets -- Tyson Foods.

Oh well, that clears it all up, then. Tyson Foods.

And what's the other 12%? According to Taco Bell, it's water, spices, oats, starch and "other ingredients" that the restaurant says contribute to the "quality" of its beef. Apparently, Taco Bell believes the way to enhance the quality of beef is to throw in things that are not beef.

So what else might be found in that "other ingredients" category? A quick look at Taco Bell's own website reveals the restaurant uses all the following ingredients in its various menu offerings:

• Autolyzed Yeast Extract (which contains MSG, an excitotoxin)
• Red #40, Blue #1, Yellow #6 artificial colors
• Corn syrup solids
• Partially Hydrogenated Corn Oil
• Soy Protein
• Propylene Glycol Alginate
• Dimethylpolysiloxane (an anti-foaming chemical)

Source: http://www.tacobell.com/nutrition/i...

Are you seriously eating at Taco Bell?
If you're eating at Taco Bell, there's not something wrong with their meat... there's something wrong with your head.

Even if Taco Bell's beef is 100% beef, it's still conventional beef from cows that are processed in factory farm operations (rather than open-range grass-fed cows). The soy ingredients used in Taco Bell foods are almost certainly GMO soy in origin. The other chemicals such as dimethylpolysiloxane make their foods sound more like chemical concoctions than real food.

Then again, Taco Bell beef is probably no worse than any other fast food restaurant. These junk food chains all exist at the fringes of the very definition of "food". What they serve is more like PHUD.

In fact, in some ways Taco Bell is actually far better than some other popular restaurants. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), for example, uses monosodium glutamate across a huge percentage of its menu items. And they advertise their fried chicken as "fresh!" (How is it fresh if it's fried? The claim makes no sense...)

Suddenly we care about food quality at Taco Bell?
But seriously, the bigger issue here isn't Taco Bell's meat ingredients as much as it is Americans' dietary complacency: If you eat at Taco Bell, you don't CARE what you're eating. Why should it matter if it's meat, or soy, or even recycled rat turds? The very fact that somebody is eating at Taco Bell already establishes they're not very interested in the purity, origins and nutritional potency of the foods they consume.

If a guy walked up to me, for example, and showed me a Taco Bell beef burrito and complained, "Dude, I'm not sure if this is real beef! What do you think is the problem here?" Then I would pause, examine the burrito carefully, then reply, "The problem is... you're a moron!"

Since when did people ever read the ingredients of the food they buy at Taco Bell anyway?

I guess reading ingredients lists is just too complicated these days
That's the glaring contradiction in all this, frankly. Of all these people sounding the alert over Taco Bell's beef, how many of them ever read the ingredients of the food they buy at Taco Bell in the first place? How many read ingredients at ANY restaurant? How many read the ingredients of the foods they buy at the grocery store? How many consider whether their favorite restaurants are cooking their food on toxic nonstick cookware?

The answer is virtually none. Because if mainstream America actually read (and understood) the chemicals going into the foods they buy every single day -- like bacon, sausage, canned soups and processed foods -- there would be an overnight food revolt that would make Taco Bell's beef burrito issue seem irrelevant.

Because Taco Bell's ingredient list isn't any worse than what you find in canned soups at your grocery store right now. And if you really want to find some toxic foods, look into the children's frozen food section where you'll find some of the most obnoxious and damaging chemicals of all, including sodium nitrite which causes cancer, and artificial colors which are derived from coal tars.

I recently produced and posted a mini-documentary video showing how blueberries are faked in many mainstream food products, including cereals from General Mills and Kellogg's. You can watch that video at www.FoodInvestigations.com

Nobody seemed to go berserk over that. Fake blueberries are acceptable to mainstream consumers, it seems. But fake beef? Oh, now that's messin' with the food supply!

Eat up, America! The beef in your burrito is no more fake than the idea that the FDA-approved processed dead food supply is somehow good for your health. By the way, you're also paying for your fake food using fake money being counterfeited by the Federal Reserve faster than you can say, "genetically modified soybean filler material."


About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams created NaturalNews.TV, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031147_Taco_ ... z1CQyfFa00



http://www.naturalnews.com/031147_Taco_Bell_beef.html

Kathyet

I find this ridiculous personally. If you like a resteraunts food eat it, if you don't.... then don't eat it. Unless someone got really sick from it or cancer from radiative beef.... wtf should people care.

I personally like Taco Bell, sure it hits my stomach hard but so do many other foods. Never once got sick from it and if I didn't like the taste I wouldn't eat it.

We really need a lawsuit reform down. Frivilous suits and regulations like this are crap. Should I go around and sue every food item that I didn't like? Should I sue every resteraunt because I don't think their food lived up to my standards? We need to ban these money grubbing suits when noone was really hurt or injured. We also need the get the government out of our daily lives such as food and so on. Make sure its safe by a very basic standards and then as long as its safe.... gtfo of our lives.

Kind of hypocrital also the government having regulations on just exactly how much *beef* is considered beef, and all these laws on certain things being bad for your health and banned from food. Yet we say cigarettes are perfectly legal wth over 70,000 chemical additives.

WTF can't government regulations stay out of our food and daily lives, sheesh.

I personally like Taco Bell, sure it hits my stomach hard but so do many other foods. Never once got sick from it and if I didn't like the taste I wouldn't eat it

LOL..."Sure it hits my stomach hard"... That's classic! That's one way to describe it I suppose.

This is not about the ingredients in a taco bell taco. This is about calling it a BEEF TACO, when it really is very little beef. So it doesn't matter if Taco Bell food is more or less healthy than any other food. It is about labeling it beef when it is not.

Taco Bell takes its beef with lawsuit to public

BRUCE SCHREINER,AP Business Writers
SARAH SKIDMORE,AP Business Writers
Posted: 01/29/2011 01:38:24 PM MST

Taco Bell says a legal beef over the meat in its tacos is bull.
The fast-food chain took out full-page ads in at least nine major newspapers and launched a YouTube campaign featuring its president Friday to proclaim its taco filling is 88 percent beef.

A false-advertising lawsuit filed last week that caused an online stir alleges the company's filling doesn't have enough beef to be called that. The lawsuit seeks to make the company stop calling it "beef," and pay the suing law firm's bill.

Taco Bell trumpeted "Thank you for suing us. Here's the truth about our seasoned beef," in the ads in Friday's editions of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other papers.

The ads go on to say the rest of the filling is a mixture of spices and common food additives.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, alleges the meat mixture has binders and extenders and does not meet federal requirements to be labeled beef.

Taco Bell denied those claims earlier this week but turned up the volume after a week in which the story spread like wildfire, making national headlines, creating an Internet stir and even prompting a bit by comedian Stephen Colbert.

Experts say similar cases show the tempest in a tortilla is unlikely to hurt Taco Bell's business, but the aggressive counter-attack is drawing some attention.

"It is unusual for a company to take this on and challenge the allegations so boldly," said Gene Grabowski, chair of the crisis and litigation practice at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington. "A lot of companies are going to be watching how this turns out."

The tone and scope of the campaign indicates Taco Bell is confident in its facts, Grabowski said. Companies typically shy away from taking facts in a legal dispute public.

The lawsuit, filed by the Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, doesn't specify what percentage of the mixture is meat. The lawyer on the case, Dee Miles, said the firm had the filling tested and found it contained 35 percent beef. The firm would not say who tested the meat or give any other specifics of the analysis.

Taco Bell says the filling contains 88 percent USDA-inspected beef and the rest is water, spices and a mixture of oats, starch and other ingredients that contribute to what it calls the "quality of its product."

The company said it uses no extenders to add volume to the filling.

Customers at a Taco Bell in parent company Yum Brands' hometown of Louisville, Ky., were unruffled.

"I've eaten it for years," said Greg Long as he grabbed a Beefy 5 Layer burrito Friday in Louisville, Ky. "I don't care."

"It tastes like ground beef from any fast-food restaurant to me," said David Carey, who mostly cared it was quick enough to fit into his lunch break.

The plaintiffs would have to prove that most diners believe they are getting something other than what Taco Bell serves. Most customers realize taco meat has ingredients besides beef, said Marc Williams, an attorney at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough with extensive experience in fast-food litigation.

In addition, the lawsuit cites U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines for labeling ground beef. The problem? They don't apply to restaurants. The USDA's rules apply to meat processors - the companies Taco Bell buys its meat from.

Tyson Foods Inc., the company's largest meat supplier, said it mixes and cooks the meat at three USDA-inspected plants.

So what's in the meat, anyway?

Fast food often contains additives. That "isolated oat product," for example, is usually used to help processed meat hang onto moisture and flavor. Other chains use them, too. McDonald's, for example, says its hamburgers are all beef, but the hamburger chain's ingredients list also includes additives and preservatives in many items.

Experts say similar ingredients are used in many processed foods sold in stores.

"There is nothing really Frankenfood in here," said Karen Ansel, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

Nutrition experts say foods in their most basic, fresh form are healthiest. But Ansel said taco fans should be more concerned about salt than ingredients with long, complicated names.

"If they eat this, it is no worse for them than what they are getting anywhere else."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_17235883

We have to wait to see who is telling the truth about the percent of beef.

Originally Posted by redpony353

This is not about the ingredients in a taco bell taco. This is about calling it a BEEF TACO, when it really is very little beef. So it doesn't matter if Taco Bell food is more or less healthy than any other food. It is about labeling it beef when it is not.

It tastes like beef, it contains beef products. Good enough for me. Plus really I don't see how it contains only 40% beef. Sure, maybe 70% and not the 88% they say but I call shanigans.

Also whats with all this false advertising crap. Its very biased already and while I support strongly not allowing false advertising misleading is commonly accepted and I'd only find this no more then standard misleading tactics.

Did you know in taco bell food pictures they don't use tomatoes? They use red bell peppers for the better color and firmness. Same goes for other things but so does every other company out there use the same misleading tactics to make things look and sound better and we don't complain about that.

The real suit should be against big scale media and "News" groups. False advertising hits dead center their. They advertise "News" and yet constantly provide biased opinion leaving out facts creating holes the size of the grand canyon. Yet they all sell us on "News" rather then "Opinion".

Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

Originally Posted by redpony353

This is not about the ingredients in a taco bell taco. This is about calling it a BEEF TACO, when it really is very little beef. So it doesn't matter if Taco Bell food is more or less healthy than any other food. It is about labeling it beef when it is not.

It tastes like beef, it contains beef products. Good enough for me. Plus really I don't see how it contains only 40% beef. Sure, maybe 70% and not the 88% they say but I call shanigans.

Also whats with all this false advertising crap. Its very biased already and while I support strongly not allowing false advertising misleading is commonly accepted and I'd only find this no more then standard misleading tactics.

Did you know in taco bell food pictures they don't use tomatoes? They use red bell peppers for the better color and firmness. Same goes for other things but so does every other company out there use the same misleading tactics to make things look and sound better and we don't complain about that.

The real suit should be against big scale media and "News" groups. False advertising hits dead center their. They advertise "News" and yet constantly provide biased opinion leaving out facts creating holes the size of the grand canyon. Yet they all sell us on "News" rather then "Opinion".

False advertising is not commonly accepted by the general public. And just because many companies do it does not make it acceptable. Maybe you are satisfied with taco bell food "tasting like beef", but most people want to be told the truth about a product so they can decide if they want to pay for it and eat it. I don't think it is too much to ask to label food honestly. There is really no reason to lie about the ingredients in food. If it is really a soy burger, then call it a soy burger.

If it isn't beef then what is it???? If it is fillers, intestines ,bulls balls, even if it is eyes, tails etc what ever. It needs to be labeled and in what percentages. When they say beef I guess they use any part of the Animal....It seems to me they don't want you to know any of that....Bad enough we don't know what part and from where the meat comes from but now we have added ingredients that they shove in and hide from us...

Personally I never go to those places McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell. We have always called the meat in those place mystery meat, always felt that way about the chicken just like hot dogs who knows what is in them?

To me if it says 100% pure beef I thought it meant ground beef I never thought about from what part of the animal it came from. So they can say 80% but now we don't know where the 80% is from...yuk... now it all has new meaning to me...that sure will open up a whole new can of beans....mystery meat is about right...


Kathyet

Originally Posted by kathyet

If it isn't beef then what is it???? If it is fillers, intestines ,bulls balls, even if it is eyes, tails etc what ever. It needs to be labeled and in what percentages. When they say beef I guess they use any part of the Animal....It seems to me they don't want you to know any of that....Bad enough we don't know what part and from where the meat comes from but now we have added ingredients that they shove in and hide from us...

Personally I never go to those places McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell. We have always called the meat in those place mystery meat, always felt that way about the chicken just like hot dogs who knows what is in them?

To me if it says 100% pure beef I thought it meant ground beef I never thought about from what part of the animal it came from. So they can say 80% but now we don't know where the 80% is from...yuk... now it all has new meaning to me...that sure will open up a whole new can of beans....mystery meat is about right...


Kathyet

I rarely eat that stuff either. And if the beef is from any part of the animal it is at least beef. But is appears that much of the ingredients are non-beef ingredients. That is ok too, but it should be labeled so we can decide if we want to eat it. Even if the ingredients are safe we still deserve to be the ones who make the decision. Ground beef has always been from many parts of the animal....that is why they grind it up. There is nothing wrong with that but the issue is truth in advertising.

It looks like the meat may have large portions of soy bean. Hey, nothing wrong with soy beans right? But if it is a soy bean taco, we have a right to know that when we buy it. It is still not clear how much actual beef is in the meat or what the other additives are so we will have to wait for more clarity on that. One side says 35% and Taco Bell says 88%. If it is 88% then that would be a high enough percentage to call it beef. But if it is 35%...no way. What is the main ingredient?