one of the features you’ll find regularly on the farm to table blog is a little something i like to call “another reason to eat locally” (ARET).
ARET will feature cringe-worthy processed “food” items from around the world — or, for the net-savvy: “food fail.”
today’s ARET food fail comes to us from the already questionable folks at taco bell.
i know what you’re probably thinking here: “well, duh, donald. we all know taco bell is fast-food, chemical-laden crap. where’s the surprise in that?”
well, here’s the dealio, kids: it’s even worse that you thought. taco bell, you see, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons today. they’re being hit with a class action suit for falsely advertizing the beef content of their taco and burrito “meat.”
while “the bell” seems justified in calling their product “seasoned ground beef,” the alabama law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles believes that the taco meat contains more ingredients that their firm has partners. in fact, according to their reports, the taco bell product contains as little as 35 per cent actual meat. the rest? well, there is plenty of the following in your double beef burrito: wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch, sodium phosphates, and a variety of natural and chemical “meat extenders.” my favourite has to be “isolated oat product.” i mean, i have no clue as to what that could even possibly be, and yet people thought it tasted great on a quesadilla.
the US Department of Agriculture defines beef as “the flesh of adult cattle.” taco bell doesn’t offer a definition of beef. but, then again, they don’t serve actual beef, so why would they?
and for trying to pass off a goopey blend of grains and chemicals as “beef,” taco bell earns the farm to table blog‘s first ever official reason to eat locally.
epic food fail.
for more information on the lawsuit, feel free to browse the actual class action complaint.