WSFA’s Coverage of Lawsuit Targeting Taco Bell ‘Beef’ Gets National Attention

By Andrew Gauthier 

WSFA’s continued coverage (video above) of a class action lawsuit filed against Taco Bell by a local law firm has been getting national attention this week.

The suit claims that Taco Bell is guilty of false advertising because the so-called beef that they use in their beef tacos is actually a dubious amalgamation called “taco meat filling,” which in fact only contains 36% real beef.

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WSFA, an NBC-affiliate in Montgomery, AL, first broke the story on its Facebook page last Friday and has been following up with reports on its website and during its newscasts this week.

In addition to the lawsuit documents, WSFA posted an image of the label (below) that appears on packages of Taco Bell’s “beef.” In addition to real beef, the “taco meat filling” includes an industrial cocktail of additives.

Here’s the list of non-beef ingredients (the other 64% of Taco Bell’s “beef” tacos)…

Water, isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin (a polysaccharide that is absorbed as glucose), soybean oil (anti-dusting agent), garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, caramel color, cocoa powder, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), natural flavors, yeast, modified corn starch, natural smoke flavor, salt, sodium phosphate, less than 2% of beef broth, potassium phosphate, and potassium lactate.

A Taco Bell spokesperson responded to WSFA’s request for a comment, saying, “We deny our advertising is misleading in any way and we intend to vigorously defend the suit.”

Here’s the label found on containers of “taco meat filling”:

The story has been circulating via the Associated Press and yesterday the popular Gawker Media blog Gizmodo picked it up.

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