Taco Bell Soapbox

Ok, excuse me for a moment while I get up on my food soapbox for a bit.  I keep hearing this story and its just screaming for me to write about it. Have you heard this whole mess about Taco Bell being sued because their meat isn't entirely beef?  If not here's the basic scoop...

A class action lawsuit was filed in California claiming that Taco Bell's meat mixture contains binders and fillers.  The USDA requires the restaurant to have at least 40% of the mixture be beef, while the rest can be spices and seasonings, water, that kind of stuff.  It was reported that Taco Bell's meat mixture only contains 35% beef while the remaining 65% contained water and a host of other substances/chemicals that no one really knows what they are or even how to pronounce them.

Taco Bell proudly boasts of the "quality" of their "meat" saying it contains 88% beef, more than double what is required.  Taco Bell President, Greg Creed, plans to counter-sue, saying these laywers have their facts wrong.  When interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, the TB president himself, in trying to defend his company and their products, stated that aside from the 88% beef, there's 3% water and 4% seasonings and spices. And they stand by their product.

yumm, doesn't that look appetizing?

Hmm, I'm kinda bad at math but it seems there's still 5% unaccounted for.  What's that made of? The president wouldn't say except that they were ingredients used to "enhance the flavor, the texture, and the taste..." of the tacos. If you have quality beef and spices, what else would you need to enhance the flavor?

Bottom line, I believe Creed is lying to protect his butt.  I used to work at Taco Bell in my high school and college days, for 3 years I might add.  And I ate there all the time. I loved it! However growing up, I began to require more sophisticated tastes and grew out of that.  So ok, its fast food, its supposed to be cheap. We all know that there are tons of fillers and extenders (whatever those are) and additives in their food and whatever beef they are using is most likely Grade D.  Stuff you wouldn't even feed your dog. And the reason they cut all these corners is to save a few bucks.  Not from your pocket, but theirs.  They don't care how much it costs you as long as you keep spending your money in their restaurants.

And while we're at it, let's not just pick on Taco Bell.  How about Burger King, KFC, McDonald's...I could go on...they're all in the same boat!  They all use fillers and additives! None of that stuff is real food because if it was people would complain its too expensive.  And let's not stop with fast food restaurants.  You wanna talk about Perdue chicken and what a bunch of soulless money-hungry liars they are?? I've seen videos and read some research about how they treat their chickens that they "claim" in their commercials by Mr. Perdue himself, are organic and antibiotic free and pampered like movie stars.  It's enough to make you sick.  Which is exactly how I feel every time I see one of their commercials.

Everybody talks about wanting good quality food but when it really comes down to it, no one wants to put out the bucks for it.  So what's the result?  Large food companies who serve us crappy "meat" mixtures where at least half of it, if not more, is made up of a bunch of chemicals and hormones causing food allergies to run rampant amongst our kids, diabetes, heart disease, early onset of puberty, obesity...in short this fake cheap food is killing our nation.  No other country lives like we Americans do, with our cheap fast food and no other country has the health problems that we do either. And who's really to blame?  The large food companies? They are not entirely without guilt.  However, they wouldn't bother making or selling us this crap if we didn't keep buying it.

Now there's some food for thought....what's more important, a cheap non-meat taco or the health and well-being of your family?  For me, I'm more than willing to shell out a few extra bucks for the real stuff.