What Kind Of Beef Does Taco Bell Use In Its Tacos And What Other Ingredients Are Added?

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Many of Taco Bell's iconic items, such as the Crunchwrap Supreme, Doritos Locos Tacos, and Beefy Five-Layer Burrito, feature seasoned beef. With many people becoming more aware of ingredient sourcing in the food they eat, it's natural that customers have wondered what kind of beef Taco Bell uses and where it gets it from. Luckily, the chain has the answer for us. Taco Bell states on its website that it uses "100 percent USDA premium beef" for all of its seasoned beef. The meat is pre-cooked, seasoned with Taco Bell's signature seven-ingredient blend, and shipped to each location packaged with water to keep it moist. Per Taco Bell's full ingredients list, the exact spice blend is unknown (two listed ingredients are simply "spices" and "natural flavors.") However, it does specifically list chili peppers, tomato powder, onion powder, and cocoa, alongside several preservatives and additives like citric acid and maltodextrin.

Taco Bell also states that it is part of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which the chain's site calls "a network of beef experts from the supply chain, academia and research, environmental and animal welfare organizations and veterinarians." The organization is committed to sustainable beef farming, an important commitment in the face of growing climate change concerns about food supply.

In the past, Taco Bell's beef has been the subject of some unsavory rumors. A common claim that circulated the internet in the '90s and early 2000s was that Taco Bell's meat was labeled "grade D," or the worst quality fit for human consumption. However, this is untrue, because "grade D" is not a label the USDA uses; instead, it grades beef as Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, or Canner. The term "premium" that Taco Bell uses on its website is not an official USDA label, so it's impossible to know exactly where it falls on this scale.

Taco Bell also came under fire when a lawsuit alleged that its beef contained only 35% meat. The chain refuted this claim by revealing in 2011 that the product is 88% composed of beef, causing the lawsuit to eventually be dropped. However, some customers still had concerns about the other 12%, so the chain published the rest of the ingredients to improve its reputation. ABC News reported that in a now-deleted page on the Taco Bell website, the company expanded on the other ingredients by saying, "many of them are items you might use at home such as salt, peppers, and spices. Ingredients like oats and sodium phosphates help make sure the texture is right." While this particular statement no longer appears on the website, you can still see the seasoned beef's full ingredient list right here.