I laughed when a lawyer sued Taco Bell because the 'beef' isn't all beef, as if Taco Bell is a bastion of fine dining. I don't think they ever posted anything about it being 100% beef and if beef can be defined as "parts of a cow", I'm not sure I want everything to be 100% beef. 'Beef meat', maybe with exclusions, would be a good way to describe it.
On the other hand, the lawsuit did answer one of life's great mysteries.
>>>Early this year, the plaintiffs asserted that Taco Bell's seasoned beef filling couldn't be called beef under USDA standards because it contained more oats, seasonings and fillers than meat. . . .
It [Taco Bell] also
released videos that defended its beef filling on YouTube. The company insisted that its product is 88 percent beef, not 35 percent as an attorney from the firm had claimed. . . . So what
is in Taco Bell's seasoned ground beef? Here's the full list of
ingredients straight from the company's site:
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 SOYBEANS, WHEAT<<<
A law firm that claimed fast-food company Taco Bell was using too much filler in its beef product said Monday it was calling it quits on the lawsuit. Taco Bell had launched a multimillion dollar campaign defending its beef, which it says has always been 88 percent meat.
www.npr.org
Of course, the issue in the case wasn't whether or not the "seasoned beef" was 100% ground beef (Taco Bell never said it was as far as I know), but whether or not calling it "seasoned beef" was false advertising. I suppose Taco Bell could have defended on the basis that no reasonable person would expect "seasoned beef" to actually be "seasoned beef" based on prior experience, but Taco Bell basically won on the merits (I suppose the accuracy of "seasoned" is still open for debate)(just kidding).
