So what’s in that beef burrito, anyway?
A recent lawsuit charging Taco Bell with mostly using substitute meat in place of the real thing highlights the lack of information available to consumers about the composition of their fast-food fare. As The Wall Street Journal reports, even when fast-food chains post ingredients on their websites, they often leave out crucial details.
What’s more, even though food-testing laboratories can determine a meal’s calories and other nutrient information, deciphering the proportions of the ingredients is essentially guesswork because of the way cooking blends the contents of a meal.
In its survey of fast-foods, the Journal was rebuffed by a majority of the 20 restaurant chains that were asked to provide numbers on the ingredients in several of their dishes.
The recent hullabaloo surrounding the content of fast-food dishes stems from allegations made by a California woman that only 35 percent of Taco Bell’s beef filling is actually cow meat.
The company denied this in subsequent newspaper ads, saying that the water, seasoning, and other ingredients in its beef mixture account for just a small part of the total, while beef accounts for 88 percent. “The claims made against Taco Bell and our seasoned beef are absolutely false,” the Taco Bell newspaper ads declared.
However, Taco Bell refused to divulge further data regarding the composition of the company’s food.
In the absence of federal regulations requiring fast-food companies to provide such details, industry executives are tight-lipped, at least in part because they don’t want to give away successful recipes to competitors.
For instance, Domino’s Pizza Inc., offered some details, indicating that its meat toppings—pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef and ham—each contain between 96.5% and 98.2% of meat, spices and water. But the company wouldn’t say how much of those percentages are meat versus how much are spices and water.
“The challenge is numbers,” said a company spokesman. “All our competitors want ours and we want theirs.”
Meanwhile, fast-food lovers remain in the dark.
What is considered meat? For sure it contain or be comprised of Lips, Nostrils (Noses), Ears, tendons, basically any meat scraps.
In Oz. sausages are known as “mystery in a bag”, and sure enough it’s a Mystery. Cured and canned meats can contain enough water for processing.
My children and friends wonder why I make my own sausages, but they haven’t worked all over the world. Some nasty stuff out there, my home meats and sausages I know whats in them.
The distinction is between fat and lean. USDA and Taco Bell count the fat as beef. Nobody else does. USDA is to food as the government unemployment report is to the truth.