Business

Taco Bell Releases Recipe Percentages to Quell ‘Filler’ Accusations

Taco Bell, the Mexican fast food giant, has responded again to accusations that its beef isn’t really beef. This time, the restaurant fired back by releasing the percentage of ingredients used in its recipe, as well as a detailed explanation about how their meat is prepared. Taco Bell Chef President Greg Creed issued the following statement:

UPDATED STATEMENT REGARDING CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT – January 26, 2011
“The lawsuit is bogus and filled with completely inaccurate facts. Our beef is 100% USDA inspected, just like the quality beef you would buy in a supermarket and prepare in your home. It then is slow-cooked and simmered with proprietary seasonings and spices to provide Taco Bell’s signature taste and texture. Our seasoned beef recipe contains 88% quality USDA-inspected beef and 12% seasonings, spices, water and other ingredients that provide taste, texture and moisture. The lawyers got their facts wrong. We take this attack on our quality very seriously and plan to take legal action against them for making false statements about our products. There is no basis in fact or reality for this suit and we will vigorously defend the quality of our products from frivolous and misleading claims such as this.”

What is in Taco Bell’s recipe for seasoned beef?

“We’re cooking with a proprietary recipe to give our seasoned beef flavor and texture, just like you would with any recipe you cook at home.

For example, when you make chili, meatloaf or meatballs, you add your own recipe of seasoning and spices to give the beef flavor and texture, otherwise, it would taste just like unseasoned ground beef. We do the same thing with our recipe for seasoned beef.

Our recipe for seasoned beef includes ingredients you’d find in your home or in the supermarket aisle today:

• 88% USDA-inspected quality beef
• 3-5% water for moisture
• 3-5% spices (including salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, sugar, garlic powder, cocoa powder and a proprietary blend of Mexican spices and natural flavors).
• 3-5% oats, starch, sugar, yeast, citric acid, and other ingredients that contribute to the quality of our product.

Our seasoned beef contains no “extenders” to add volume, as some might use. For more information about our ingredients go to http://www.tacobell.com.”

Greg Creed
President and Chief Concept Officer
Taco Bell Corp.

Usually, restaurants try to keep details of their recipes secret. But considering the controversy surrounding Taco Bell’s beef, I have a feeling not many will be trying to steal this recipe.

Comments (99)

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  • OkiePatriot
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:23am

    I love Taco Bell and as a consumer I choose to eat there and give them my money for their product. The govt. needs to stay the hell out of the free market…period!

    Report Post »  
  • Davesnothere
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:22am

    Two Mexican pizzas to go please! MMMMM!

    Report Post »  
  • jgeezy
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:22am

    @Thomas Parker

    Sorry. I am new at this, won’t happen again.

    Report Post »  
  • RonaldoMagus
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:21am

    WTF MOMENT…..

    Guess Taco Bell has gotten themselves in trouble with the LEFT for pulling ads from their new child porn show on MTV. Think I’ll go buy a few tacos and say WTF!

    Report Post »  
  • HotSteaminTeaAnyone
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:18am

    My friend’s son who worked there in 06 told me that on the package their meat comes in it says “Grade D but edible.” Doesn’t sound like the same thing you would find in my home!

    Report Post »  
    • TERMLIMITSNOW
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:31am

      No such thing as grade-d meat……..Quality grades are (in order from best to worst) Prime, Choice, Select, standard, Commercial, Cutter, and Canner. These are actually optional grades and the packing plant decides if they want the carcasses to be quality graded. The other type of grade is yield grade. Yield grade is (from best to worst) 1 to 5. this is mandatory and must be done on each carcass.

      Report Post » TERMLIMITSNOW  
    • Randeecobra
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:37pm

      And my friend said it has sawdust on the lable, and another friend said there is mud in the beans, and the lettuce is shredded green paper!!! Do you have any of your own facts dunderhead?

      Report Post »  
  • Rillobymorning
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:17am

    FLOTUS probably prefers Taco Villa.

    Report Post »  
  • Liberalismsamentaldisorder
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:15am

    What’s a Taco Bell taco cost, 99 cents? What do you expect you’re going to get? If you buy it and like it, then all is well. If you buy it and don’t like it, then don’t go back. Of course after the libs get done with them, they won’t cost 99 cents anymore. Lot’s of trial lawyers gotta get paid…….

    Report Post »  
  • Thomas Parker
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:13am

    Off-topic, blog-spam. There are other ways to get traffic to your blog, homey.

    Report Post »  
  • LindaB11
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:11am

    “Our seasoned beef contains no “extenders” to add volume, as some might use.”

    That’s what the oats are for “extenders” WTH is he talking about

    Report Post »  
  • mcpbob
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:05am

    who gives a crap…. i love taco bell, its cheap, it taste good, and i have never gotten sick from eating anything from them… and they are right, you order meatloaf, or meatballs, it is not 100 percent beef, they use fillers, bread, and other fillers along with seasoning… this is nothing but someone with a hardon for taco bell, i mean really,…. next thing we know someone in congress is goign to sue the food court there for biting on a pit or something like that

    Report Post » mcpbob  
    • jgeezy
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:08am

      Haha. I’m 25, and I have been eating Taco Bell for as long as I can remember. I don‘t care what they use as long as it doesn’t make me sick. Their crunchy grilled stuffed burrito is legit.

      Report Post »  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:53am

      @mcpbob
      Ha! Unless I missed it, I wondered why the Blaze didn’t post that story!
      Kucinich is a dunce.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • Untameable-kate
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:50am

      Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      It was here yesterday.

      Report Post » Untameable-kate  
  • RobR
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:01am

    What is it with busting Taco Bell’s balls? First that woman put a finger from the morgue where her brother worked, now this.

    That poor little chihuahua must be turning over in her grave over this.

    Report Post » Barack Must Go  
    • BlazingBlaze
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:49am

      Ok, dude, Google is your friend. Take advantage of that.

      1) The woman put the finger in Wendy’s chili.

      2) I can’t find anything on this woman who has brought the suit, but I would bet money that she is part of the “healthy eating” group that wants to put their nose in everyone’s business and make everyone “eat right”. These are the same people who made McDonald’s quit using beef tallow in their fries, resulting in the best fast-food fries in the world becoming (at the highest) #3.

      So it‘s not anybody busting Taco Bell’s balls, it‘s just another nanny trying to tell YOU what you can and can’t eat.

      And now I am off to go get a 5-layer burrito. See ya!

      Report Post »  
  • jgeezy
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:57am

    Patriot,

    It doesn’t, I just know the people that are on here have a lot of knowledge on religion. Apologies.

    Report Post »  
  • hauschild
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:56am

    This reminds me of the same witch hunt the progressives embarked on in the 1980‘s when McDonald’s meat was supposedly horse meat.

    Amazing what small minds can dream up.

    Report Post »  
  • what4
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:53am

    It never looked like beef to me…at least not the kind I have at home….

    Report Post »  
  • The Patriot
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:50am

    Whats this got to do with Beef ?

    Report Post »  
  • stmike
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:46am

    Yeah really who cases what’s in it. I don’t care if they use ratburger. I wish for once a company would stand up to the government and challenge their constitutional authority to make them do anything. Tell the fed to go pound sand!

    Report Post »  
  • NickDeringer
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:43am

    Sure. But what‘s in the Taco Bell’s tacos in China?? Huh? What? Huh?

    Report Post » NickDeringer  
  • cranberry
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:41am

    Well 88 percent is pretty good considering what it was yesterday… I can eat Taco Bell without feeling like i got cheated out of whatever…

    Report Post » cranberry  
  • Slobaphobe
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:41am

    What we are witnessing is a government assault on the fast food industry for the common good.

    Report Post »  
  • jbl8199
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:41am

    I don‘t care if they put rat poison in their Taco’s, I love Taco Bell.

    Report Post » jbl8199  
  • santramir
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:39am

    there must be something else besides the beef percentage content. michelles diet or xenophobic scaring tactics probably? what about burger kings or fridays’ hot wings percentages? come on america

    Report Post » santramir  
  • SREGN
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:38am

    I didn’t notice Beano in the ingredient list. Maybe that’s why I ………

    Report Post »  
  • teachermitch32
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:37am

    Don‘t go to Jgeezy’s link…just saying.

    Report Post »  
  • Cabo King
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:29am

    good for you Taco Bell sue their ass off….

    Report Post » Cabo King  
    • chips1
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:58am

      If the claims were correct then Obummer isn’t legally a president because he contains 70% B.S. and is labeled incorrectly. Where is the warning label?

       
  • BurntHills
    Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:28am

    wonder, seriously, what obama’s beef with Taco Bell was. maybe queen michelle didn’t get enough freebies.

    Report Post » BurntHills  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:46am

      Beef what, though? Beef lips, beef buttholes, beef hooves, beef tails. You can call it beef if it comes from a cow, but it doesn’t necessarily come from a “good cut.” Heck, with all the pieces of gristle, even I knew it wasn’t the good cuts of meat.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • Untameable-kate
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:51am

      It wasn‘t BO’s beef it was some chick in Californication that made the acusation and filed the suit. I hope the lawyers charge her a pretty penny for wasting their time

      Report Post » Untameable-kate  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 9:56am

      @Untamable Kate

      True, and I have the feeling that the lawyers are now going to be acting like true vultures and swarm in from across the swamps of lawerville to pounce upon Taco Bell; in the release of this information one or more will probably make demands for more information to be released, and the next great law suit induced hunt will commence.

      Taco Bell needs to stand up strong against the psycho-lawsuit hungry lawers, and if taken into court, make it a fight to the finish with facts.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • grandmaof5
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:04am

      What took them so long to respond, inquiring minds want to know. Maybe the recipe was with Obama’s birth certificate in Hawaii. They knew it was there but had a hard time finding it.

      Report Post »  
    • mikem1969
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:45am

      I have worked at taco bell, and before they started sending the meat prepackaged you may have started off with 88% beef, but once th e beef was cooked and then the left over grease from the meat was mixed in with oats and other fillers and then mixed in with the meat you end up with around 30%-40% beef.

       
    • Cemoto78
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 10:46am

      I happen to like Taco Bell products and think they taste really good. I would rather have Taco Bell than some of the Hot Dogs out there. On a side note, what are the ingredients in the tacos you buy in Mexico? These I would be very suspect of.

      Report Post » Cemoto78  
    • Larry Sheldon
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:02am

      Commies don’t like capitalist successes.

      Report Post » Larry Sheldon  
    • Bluebonnet
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:07am

      Taco Bell, it took long enough to give the recipe. I checked on your site to try to find it and all I found was bone beef scraped off, oats, spices etc. But, I still say the meat used to taste like meat years ago and when you changed it to spicy slop full of who knows what,. I quit eating there. Lost my appetite.

      Report Post »  
    • All_Ways_Right
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:19am

      @ANONYMOUS T. IRRELEVANT

      Your statement is erroneous and factually incorrect. “Beef lips, beef buttholes, beef hooves, beef tails” are known as beef by-products. It is required by law to disclose using these beef by-products. That why the beef is inspected. Canned dog food contains beef by-products. Taco Bell products do not.

      Report Post »  
    • RightWrite
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:28am

      Taco Bell used to be good decades ago — the beef used to taste like beef, and they used to actually put some in there food. You look at the pictures on the menu and they’re nothing like the product served — skimping on fillings has destroyed the quality.

      Report Post » RightWrite  
    • JayCee
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 11:56am

      Under the Food Facts section on the Taco Bell website is this comment and response:

      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.

      Report Post »  
    • gofigureinternational
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:23pm

      Good for Taco Bell firing back. I am sure the 5% oats “by weight” are a fairly significant filler in ‘volume’ compared to the beef, but that is largely irrelevant. Isn’t the bigger issue a somewhat entitlement minded view, people who want something for nothing? They offer a 39 cent taco…if you wanted a sirloin steak fajita, you likely would not be ordering one for 39 cents in a drive through! They offer their customers a cheap alternative for an inexpensive, fast, tasty lunch. Again, whether it is healthy or a made to order heart attack is for the customer to decide. No one is forced to eat there.

      Report Post »  
    • What-A-Joke
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:35pm

      WOW, I’m glad we got that settled.

      http://www.clubseabreeze.net/TimPhillips

      What-A-Joke  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:42pm

      @ANONYMOUS

      Wrong. You can‘t actually call it beef unless it’s at least of standard quality as rated by the USDA. Commercial grade and below meats cannot be called beef/pork/chicken or whatever it is. If you go somewhere where those grades of meat are sold they are unlabeled with no USDA inspection tag.

      Commercial grade and less is where you get the use of some of the parts that some people find less than appetizing. That’s where things like slim jims and generic “meat products” come from.

      Report Post »  
    • Rowgue
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:50pm

      @JAYCEE

      Silicon Dioxide is something that occurs naturally in all foods. Not only is it not harmful, but it is in fact an important factor in bone development and bone health.

      Report Post »  
    • CultureWarriors
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 12:59pm

      Yo Quiero Taco Bell – Don’t eat there much myself however it looks like an Alabama attorney may be in some hot water. I hope TB sues that pendejo into bankruptcy! We seriously need to go to a system of loser pays all legal fees like most countries. This would prevent a lot of frivolous law suites. You’d have really think you have a case before you sue.

      Report Post » CultureWarriors  
    • ozz
      Posted on January 27, 2011 at 4:53pm

      Viva la Taco bell :)

      Report Post » ozz  
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