text: Earlier this week a class action lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell, alleging that their beef is actually only 36% meat and the rest is "extenders" and other non-meat substances. Taco Bell's President and Chief Concept Officer Greg Creed has released a new and more in-depth statement that goes into detail about the percentage of ingredients in the recipe, like how it contains 88% USDA-inspected quality beef. 
   
   "The lawsuit is bogus and filled with completely inaccurate facts. Our beef is 100% USDA inspected, just like the quality beef you would buy in a supermarket and prepare in your home. It then is slow-cooked and simmered with proprietary seasonings and spices to provide Taco Bell's signature taste and texture. Our seasoned beef recipe contains 88% quality USDA-inspected beef and 12% seasonings, spices, water and other ingredients that provide taste, texture and moisture. The lawyers got their facts wrong. We take this attack on our quality very seriously and plan to take legal action against them for making false statements about our products. There is no basis in fact or reality for this suit and we will vigorously defend the quality of our products from frivolous and misleading claims such as this." 
   
   What is in Taco Bell's recipe for seasoned beef? 
   
   "We're cooking with a proprietary recipe to give our seasoned beef flavor and texture, just like you would with any recipe you cook at home. 
   
   For example, when you make chili, meatloaf or meatballs, you add your own recipe of seasoning and spices to give the beef flavor and texture, otherwise, it would taste just like unseasoned ground beef. We do the same thing with our recipe for seasoned beef. 
   
   Our recipe for seasoned beef includes ingredients you'd find in your home or in the supermarket aisle today: 
   
   • 88% USDA-inspected quality beef 
   
   • 3-5% water for moisture 
   
   • 3-5% spices (including salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, sugar, garlic powder, cocoa powder and a proprietary blend of Mexican spices and natural flavors). 
   
   • 3-5% oats, starch, sugar, yeast, citric acid, and other ingredients that contribute to the quality of our product. 
   
   Our seasoned beef contains no "extenders" to add volume, as some might use. For more information about our ingredients go to http://www.tacobell.com." 
   
   Greg Creed 
   
   President and Chief Concept Officer 
   
   Taco Bell Corp. ||||| Fake purses used to be a consumer's biggest purchasing problem, but lately it seems buyers need to beware of fake food. No stomach is safe. From fast food to seemingly wholesome food, over and over the cover is being blown on what we think we're eating. 
   
   This week Taco Bell has been front and center on the fake food stage. The indigestion was ignited by a lawsuit claiming Taco Bell's "beef" was only 36 percent beef, which leaves a whole lot of room for non-beef ... stuff. A few rejoiced at the news, but it left many more rethinking their run for the border. 
   
   Taco Bell stands firm that their "beef" is actually beef, well, at least 88 percent of it is. The rest of it is a bunch of seasonings and spices. In a statement on the company's website, President Greg Creed took all the taco-hatred to task and issued a spicy statement: 
   
   
   
   We are proud of the quality of our beef and identify all the seasoning and spice ingredients on our website. Unfortunately, the lawyers in this case elected to sue first and ask questions later -- and got their "facts" absolutely wrong. We plan to take legal action for the false statements being made about our food." 
   
   So now there are fake claims being made about fake food? Can't we just get some real food around here? It seems to be more and more difficult. 
   
   For example, blueberries. Yes, even those little wholesome blue balls of nutrition aren't safe. It seems they have some nasty doppelgangers -- made up of sugar and partially hydrogenated oils -- that are posing in foods you may think contain blueberries. So there may be nothing blueberry about your blueberry muffin. 
   
   McDonald's has been in trouble for Fruit and Maple Oatmeal that contains no real maple. In fact, the only trace of maple comes from extract from the bark of a tree that's a cousin to maple -- and a distant cousin at that. Those loggers up in Vermont didn't take kindly to that and called McDonald's out. Now, if you order up the oatmeal while in Vermont, you can ask for real maple syrup, and Mickey D's will provide. For anyone outside Vermont, you still get the fake stuff. 
   
   And of course, no talk of fake food would be complete without mention of "chicken" nuggets and the infamous pink goo. Oh there's chicken in there all right, but a little more than breast and wings -- like all of it, including beak and wings. There's plenty of other stuff in there as well. 
   
   Even chocolate isn't immune. We recently learned that the average American chocolate bar only has 4-10 percent chocolate in it. 
   
   So clearly, fake food abounds, which at first seems like something about which to get outraged, for which to demand change. But information about what we eat also abounds. And today, if you're really curious about what's in the food you eat, you can find out easily. No longer do you have to write a letter, find a stamp, send it off, and wait for a reply from each company, but you can hop on the Internet and find it in a few clicks. 
   
   It's a company's job to sell food, but it's up to us to decide if we're going to put it in our bodies. Frankly, I'm a lot more worried about the food being safe than a little marketing creativity in the food titles. 
   
   
   
   I've never gone to Taco Bell thinking I was getting 100 percent top quality beef -- mainly because I like their bean burritos better, but also because I know it's cheap fast food. And honestly, I don't really want to know what's in there anyway -- just like I don't want to believe that there's any difference between my fake Gucci bag and the real deal. 
   
   
   
   Are you bothered by "fake" foods promoted by restaurants and food manufacturers? 
   
   
   
   
   
   Image via TheCulinaryGeek/Flickr 
   
  
target: – The drama over Taco Bell's meat-or-not just keeps getting better and better. After issuing a statement arguing that its meat was, in fact, meat, it has released another statement that attaches a number to that proclamation: "Our seasoned beef recipe contains 88% quality USDA-inspected beef." And that approach is just like mom's! Writes President Greg Creed, "When you make chili, meatloaf or meatballs, you add your own recipe of seasoning and spices to give the beef flavor and texture, otherwise, it would taste just like unseasoned ground beef." And he breaks down the remaining 12%, notes the Consumerist: 3%-5% each of water, spices, and "other ingredients" like oats, starch, and sugar. Click for more fast-food-ingredient drama—did you know McDonald's Fruit and Maple Oatmeal contains no maple?