What is the actual meat used in Taco Bell's tacos?

Cheap ground beef. USDA Choice to be exact.

Some ground beef mixed with a lot of fillers according to a class action lawsuit.

When I worked there 6–7 years ago the district manager once told me the beef contains about 20–30% cinnamon…. for the color.

Nope, no cinnamon (well, maybe as a “seasoning”). The lawsuit alleges that Taco Bell’s “meat” is filled with extenders and volumizers like:
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…water, “Isolated Oat Product,” wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate as well as beef and seasonings.
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Whereas the USDA definition in the lawsuit says “ground beef” should:
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…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.
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@robmandu Well that doesn’t mean there’s no cinnamon in it…. it just means they’re not complaining about it :).... lol

Wow. I always thought that the Taco Bell meat being full of oats was a rumor.

I’m not surprised to hear about all the fillers mentioned above. But it still won’t stop me from eating their Beef Chalupa Supremes. Yeah, I know it sounds gross… but I can’t help it; it still tastes good!

@WillWorkForChocolate Don’t feel bad. I used to work there, saw how we make it and how it comes…. and I love the shit out of it.

The delicious kind…

@tedd it is interesting, because both of my sisters work there, and they like the food at Taco Bell more than anyone else I know. I always say that if I saw it prepared, I wouldn’t want to eat it anymore… but maybe that isn’t true.

Obviously one of the fillers in that meat is something addictive.

@tedd LOL, I used to work there too. I saw what everything looked like, including the bean flakes. I still eat the hell outta Taco Bell. I do get mad sometimes when my burritos fall apart or when they squirt all the sour cream in ONE spot in the burrito or taco and wrap it wrong… I always say to myself, “I need to walk my ass in there and show them how to make this shit the right way.”

I don’t know that the extra ingredients are “gross”, per sé. They’re likely added in a powder form at some step along the line. I’m not saying you want to eat them, just that it’s likely not a big deal nutritionally, digestively, or cosmetically. I mean, it’s Taco Bell already. It’s not like you’re eating there for the health benefits.

This lawsuit just seems to be about someone being persnickety about the definition of “ground beef”. Why the FDA and USDA aren’t enforcing this already should be the question.

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@TheOnlyNeffie, I think seeing the food prepared at a chicken joint, like Church’s Chicken or similar, would be more off-putting. They’ve got to hack the birds apart, rip out the fat, etc. Even so, if that means the consumer gets fresh chicken, it’s likely worth it.

[Disclaimer: I have no idea the state of Church’s Chicken when it arrives on the back of a truck.]

Poll:

Do you want 89¢ “miscellaneous meat product” tacos with the fillers? Or do you want real “seasoned ground beef” tacos for $1.29?

Just curious.

I totally agree with @mrentropy, something addictive without a doubt. My youngest sister is on an elimination diet for health reasons, and she’s a very health conscious girl. Tries to eat right, exercises daily – but she said that cutting out Taco Bell has been like quitting drugs. Again, she works there, so that is how it worked its way into her healthy diet. Makes you wonder, that’s for sure.

@robmandu I’d pay more for higher quality food, however a lot of the appeal is in the lower cost for many people. Sometimes your options are limited by your wallet.

Does it really matter what meat and “other stuff” is used? I really doubt that many folks eat at Taco Bell thinking that it is health food. Bottom line is that whatever it is, it tastes good, is generally not fatal (at least in the short term).

(Truth be known, I’m still annoyed that they started using a “healther” oil. That good old coconut oil they used to use made for some darned fine tasting tacos)

Allllls I know is that I lived behind a Taco Bell as a kid, and bags labeled “Dehydrated taco filling-add water” Would blow into my yard on the reg.
Not “taco meat”...“taco filling”. And I still crave them.

Here are Taco Bell’s ingredients for Seasoned Ground Beef, according to Tacobell.com:

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

Upon reading that list above, one can easily conclude that the fillers are actually far healthier than the beef itself.

It’s funny that this question got asked today because I was actually researching this very thing just last night, after someone said in chat, ‘Taco Bell’s ground beef is only 35% beef’. From my understanding of what I found (interestingly, none of the lawsuit stuff came up), it’s very, very cheap cuts of beef, first of all. Like, cuts that are rejected for other purposes.

Now, the beef is a much higher standard than what’s used in pet food, and it must be 100% muscle flesh, no tendons, hooves, intestines, etc. It’s just that because the cuts are so cheap that they are pretty flavorless on their own and TB has to add seasonings and fillers to make them tasty.

When I worked there 35 years ago, it was hamburger with a seasoning packet. I was pretty impressed at how fresh everything was, but that WAS 35 years ago.

Taco Bell existed 35 years ago? OMG, that’s just as bad as my mother telling me that spoons had already been invented when she was a kid!

@WillWorkForChocolate; well, we DID have to memorize $.19X every number because our cash registers couldn’t do multiples and didn’t figure change. We also had to prepare the stuff really fast because we wrote the orders on a wax crayon board and only had room for 2 orders at a time.
now I feel really old.

Oh my… what a pain in the arse.

I feel like my mom must have felt when I would ask her to tell me stories about the olden days.

Ah yes, I remember back in the day around the time @Judi was working at a Taco Bell, I too had a friend in my home town who had a similar job. Being a small town in middle America in the 70’s, about the only thing to do on a Friday night was to “cruise the drag”, where, of course, the Taco Bell was located. We used to drive through the Taco Bell drive through when we knew he would be working the window and order one flour tortilla just to give him a hard time.

Good times… ;)

I can buy Taco Bell Taco seasoning packets at my grocery store, but what should I ask for at the butcher’s section?

not sure if this is fact,
but I was once told: Grade F beef.

Oat filler and wheat filler is basically just flour. It’s probably the healthiest part of the entire meal.

@boxer3 – That is urban legend. The USDA does not grade in letters.

Just saw this today. Law suit about the meat at Taco Bell.

@MissAnthrope heh! they had me fooled all this time,
worked for me though- thats one reason i stopped eating there hahaha.
I guess it all worked out.

The USDA doesn’t grade in letters, except for un-ground poultry. They get an ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’.

Taco Bell’s rebuttal.

Years ago I predicted that someday in the future generations would lament, “Boy! Remember when you could get a REAL burger at McDonald’s?” Sadly—especially for those of us who grew up on pre-fast food burgers and Mexican food—looks like that day has arrived sooner than expected. sigh

Guess who’s eating Taco Bell right now.

I just can’t stop myself.

Two beef Chalupa Supremes with guacamole, 1 packet of mild sauce and 1 packet of salsa verde.

OMG, and this fake meat stuff is so yummy.

Taco Bell has responded with a full page ad in today’s New York Times.