Taco Bell offers free taco in lawsuit's wake

[Recursion]

Source: Bloomberg

Taco Bell will offer Facebook fans a free taco as it tries to recover from a lawsuit questioning the content of its taco filling.

The company was recently thrust into the spotlight when a lawsuit claimed that the restaurant's seasoned beef filling did not have enough beef in them to be billed as such.

Taco Bell fought back with full-page ads that said "Thank You for Suing Us" and defended its beef products, saying they contain 88 percent beef, not 35 percent the law firm behind the lawsuit claimed. It also waged a social media campaign, urging Twitter users to voice their support.

Taco Bell says the taco deal is a thank you to customers for support. The offer begins Tuesday and is available to Facebook members who "Like" the Taco Bell page. The offer is limited to 10 million coupons.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-08/taco-bell-offers-free-taco-in-lawsuit-s-wake.html

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"We got sued because our tacos suck. In response, well give you more ersatz tacos."

NB: Though it says "read more", actually that's pretty much the whole thing.

[meow mix]

1. a fake taco for free woooot

score!!!

[LawnLover]

21. I don't care it's fake or if there's no beef at all

I love Taco bell. Especially their bean burritos.

[global1]

2. Just Curious - What Is The Make-Up Of The Other 12% And......

what is the beef content of other fast food operations. McDonald's Hamburgers, Burger King Hamburgers, White Castle Hamburgers, etc. Should we think that their hamburgers are all 100% beef?

[jdlh8894]

3. Other 12% is oats. Used as a binder

and to absorb the melted fat content. EOM

[Taverner]

9. my guess: glycerin, salt and about a dozen chemicals

[boppers]

29. The other stuff:

According to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/taco-bell-meat_n_813864.html

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
Potassium lactate

[Alhena]

4. Soylent Tacos are made out of people!

IT'S PEOPLE!!!!!

[OrwellwasRight]

43. +1!!!!!!

:rofl:

[fatbuckel]

5. Even if I was on Facebook I would rather not eat shit.

[Skittles]

37. I'll take shit over Facebook any fucking day

[saras]

6. Haven't we heard this story before?

Music by Beck Hansen, film by Teddy Hose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-XuMvxi-vc

[Codeine]

7. Why do you say they suck?

The filler isn't unhealthy at all -- it's just oats. Hell, it's on balance more healthy if you think about it.

[LisaM]

8. How could anyone even think it was all beef, at the prices they sell for?

I mean, really, you get that giant amount of food for 99 cents. And it's all beef! Yeah, right.

[du_da]

25. Not to mention

it couldn't possibly be all beef and taste like their version of taco seasoning at the same time. Did people really think they didn't add some other things in for flavor and texture? Have these people never cooked anything?

[Rex]

10. LOL!' Well you know Polly Ann, 88% wins the race'.

Yumm...who wants a super burrito!

[Incitatus]

11. 88% ground beef that probably contains 30% fat.

So what would be about

62% meat

26% fat

12% oats and seasoning


Their food does suck, but you get what you pay for.

[jmowreader]

30. They drain a lot of the grease off

You're never going to get it all, but if they don't drain it the grease will make the bottom of the shell soft enough for the filling to fall through.

When that happens the person who got the taco will demand a replacement.

Oh, and the excess grease would drip on the customers' clothes and piss them off.

If I was the meat buyer for Taco Bell I'd be looking for the lowest-fat meat I could get at a reasonable price for two reasons: the less weight you drain off the more you can sell, and reducing the amount of drained fat also means you have to pay the grease haulers less for their service.

[Born Free]

12. OK, I confess...

I like them all, Taco bell , Wendy's, Burger King, Hardees and even some things at McDonalds we get things from the local pizza shops as well as a couple major chains like Dominos and Papa Johns, oh and don't forget Subway and Bob Evans carryout as well. I don't really care how much beef they contain. All I know is they are 5 minutes away and if we are in a hurry my wife hits the drive through and we have a meal but I prefer places with home delivery, but we do not care for Chinese. As we get older, we have less home made than we did years ago.

[forty6]

23. Refreshingly honest, and I happen to agree, one or two times a month.

eating these foods won't kill us.... not too early anyway.

I don't think a taco should have 100% beef anyway, it's the veggies, sour cream and salsa that makes them tasty. I usually get chicken, anyway.

[Raine]

24. I like Taco Bell too

I go there every other week or so. I'm a vegetarian so I get the toastados and the other items that don't have meat in them. They're just across the stree from me so they are close and I enjoy the food. :-)

[mainer]

32. I got addicted to Jack in the Box tacos as a kid

even though those have probably got even more non-beef filler than the Taco Bell ones.

Honestly? Give me anything savory inside a fried corn tortilla shell and I'll like it.

I also make my own corn tortillas, salsa, and stewed pork filling from scratch.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. Yech!

No thanks. I know they call it a taco but it's NOT a taco.

[whogasa736]

14. If it is free you can

still have mine. I will pass.

[WatsonT]

15. How hard is it to make decent

cheap mexican food? The bulk of it is based around cheap ingredients anyway.

[bigworld]

16. If they can save one penny per taco,

and they serve 2 billion tacos a year.... well, the temptation to cut corners by just a little bit must be immense.

[WatsonT]

17. True

I guess I should have said: why don't consumers demand decent cheap Mexican food.

Because I am willing to bet that this event won't make too much of a dent in their long term sales.

[petronius]

39. There is a lot of decent cheap Mexican food out there - it's usually at the

locally-owned Mexican walk-up right next to the Taco Bell. But I can't answer your question about why people choose one over the other (still, at least the lines are short for those of us who choose differently... :9)

[LiberalEsto]

18. I always suspected it was burro

with a dash of chihuahua.

[Old Troop]

19. I believe we have a winner!!!!!

[DeeJay]

20. True story: the day they came out with their rebuttal ad, I happened to go there

and ordered some tacos. They told me they ran out of their "beef" and would I like steak instead? They said the price would be the same.

I actually wanted the "beef" instead of steak, but settled for steak.

I hope someone there at least got a kick out of the irony.

[immoderate]

22. Now they have a "quad steak" special. Ha.

I just always assumed that the taco meat was "stuff." I avoid all fast food except an occasional Taco Bell. (No In-n-Outs back here.):(

I wish someone had what you can buy from a cart in Ensenada for a quarter. Yum!

--imm

[pinniped]

26. Is the word social overused or what?

.

[Initech]

28. I really hate how everything is "like us on Faceboook! Join our Twitter account! Take our survey!"

:eyes:

[Initech]

27. Lewis Black nailed it the other day:

"36%???? Even a Duraflame log is 42% beef!!"

:rofl:

[formercia]

31. "we will prove to you that it doesn't taste like it's made from assholes."

It's all in the seasoning and secret ingredients. "We use air-freshener technology to make your Taco Bell experience is a pleasant one."

[lonestarnot]

33. LOL! What. Eat an asshole. It'll make you smile errr

:puke:

[formercia]

34. Let's go to Taco Bell and get a couple of Rim Jobs to go.

You always know a true friend, when they go out and get a couple of Rim Jobs and come back and give you one.

[underpants]

36. a Colbert classic if you haven't seen it - ... "Silicone Dioxide" which is SAND

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/372475/january-27-2011/gordita-supreme-court

[rocktivity]

38. And don't forget about that dastardly substance

dihydrogen monoxide!

:headbang:
rocktivity

[underpants]

40. That's hilarious

Science is not my thing but I could tell that they were purposely not stating what it actually is.

Wow what a great website. Someone put in some long hours on that.

When I google idhydrogen monoxide the first three links ARE that site. Finally a wikipedia link on the hoax told me what it was.

fuuuuuuuuuuunny

[formercia]

42. Thanks for the link.

:hi:

That was funny.

[mainer]

35. compared to fried chicken or cheeseburgers, this is health food

Very few calories in a regular Taco Bell taco. The shell's not fried, it's got lettuce and veggies in it, and not all that much meat, either.

[cannabis_flower]

41. Also, in case you didn't know

The sour cream they use is lite sour cream. So go ahead and have the Taco Supreme.