This is about a previous entry – Taco Bell. I wrote that a rice and bean burrito at taco bell is vegan. (w/o cheese of course)
But then I received this comment in reply to that post:
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taco bell rice is made with chicken stock. sorry, hate to be the bearer of bad news.
Posted by: [Unsigned] at August 6, 2004 04:49 PM
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I wondered what the truth actually was so I emailed Taco Bell and asked them. That was 2 weeks ago, I had almost given up on them, but I received a letter from Yum! Brands, Inc. today – they own Taco Bell.
Now, I am a member of PETA, so I know that Yum! is not the best company because of their purchasing of chickens that are tortured and treated horribly. (reason I am vegan, animal cruelty) I am with Peta in their attack on KFC, but I have got to give credit where credit is due and I see from Yum! what I hope is a glimmer of hope.
There is no chicken stock in Taco Bell Seasoned Rice!
…but there is casein (sodium caseinate) in there, so Taco Bell’s Seasoned Rice is “almost vegan.” Legal for me, but if you don’t go for any dairy, don’t get the rice when you order a bean burrito with no cheese.
The rest of it is okay. The tortillas are clean, the beans are vegan, and of course so are the vegetables, and the hot sauce is too. As well as a number of different stuff on their menu. I got the entire low-down from them and I do appreciate it.
Here’s their complete Ingredient Statement – Taco Bell Ingredient Statements.
So I hope that Yum! will bow to the pressure that Peta is placing on them to clean up their KFC act and care more and more about the “ingredients” they sell in their restaurants.
yes I used to work at Taco Bell and there is no chicken stock in the rice..though I didn’t know about the casien. For some reason everyone assumes there is whey in their tortillas, and there isn’t. Damn that casien sneaking in there! Oh well thanks for posting that.
I thought the same thing and was surprised by the ingredients myself. You’re welcome for the post, I think I read your post on goveg about there being no chicken stock in the and that is why I contacted Taco Bell. You were right. Take a look at the list of ingredients for the rice. There isn’t much casein in the rice, it is far down the list of ingredients.
Is sodium casienate the same thing? Probably when I looked at the ingrediants I didn’t realize it was the same. I’m dissapointed though..I do love their 7 layer burritos. Oh well, I’ll survive.
Yes, I actually looked it up in the dictionary and sodium casienate is casein with a “metal” in it, I assume that is the sodium part of it.
Yeah, I know. There is so little in there that they probably could easily do without it.
Hey, your comments are working!
Anyway … for future reference, the Vegetarian Resource Group has a guide to fast-food chains. Order it here.
Thanks for the tip, Thlayli. I have not looked at the vegetarian resource guide, but when I have an extra $6 (asking price to buy it on the link) I certainly will.
This forum is humorous… regardless if taco bell’s rice is vegan or not, how can you support an industry which profits solely off the slaughter of animals? Yum! also controls A&W, Pizza Hut, and KFC, non of which have any capability of serving the vegetarian.
Yeah, I know Happy Cati. I know.
First, this is not a forum, but a web log. That means it is one person’s view of the world, not a collective, but people can comment on that view and then it does take on forum qualities and I am all for that. I appreciate your position and I do actually agree. Though, for your info, Pizza Hut recently introduced a soy cheese pizza in some of its restaurants, and I took that as a very hopeful sign and looked very hard for one that I could get to, because frankly I love Pizza Hut and have not had any in over 5 years.
I go to Taco Bell, even though I agree with you, because I am weak. I miss being a normal person. I want to feel normal every once in a while. I get tired of cooking every time I want something to eat and I no longer live in a city so my options are very limited.
I also think that change comes slowly and with much acceptance of the reality of now, but with an eye and an ever gradual movement toward the future.
So, there it is then.
fast food has alot of preservatives and other chemicals that are bad for your body, even if its vegan its still harmful to you.
Nobody seems to be concerned with hydrogenated oils,the trans fats are far worse for your health than whether you are vegan or not. Does anybody know how to find out this info. from their limited ingredients list? Another form of hideous trans fats would be lard in the beans? Please help.
I appreciate the information that I obtained through this website about Taco Bell ingredients. I would like to add that the bleached flour in their tortillas is of course quite toxic. Even today’s moronic, pharmaceutical-pawn doctors will tell you to avoid bleached flour if you want to be healthy.
Is Taco Bell meat “mock meat” or is it real?
I started being vegan around thanksgiving, and i just came to this site to check out whats safe at TacoBell, you guys help alot thanks!
What about the new fiesta potatoes?
I just wanted to let all of you know that I just checked the ingredient list on their site and…thier tortillas contain DATEM now, for those of you unfamiliar it’s an ingredient that has been sprouting up all over in bread product as a rising agent it is a slaughterhouse aquireditem and therefore makes items not only non vegan but, also non vegetarian. One thing that is safe is the cinnamon twists. Oh, and the rice still contains milk. Otherwise I dunno, you can see the list of ingredients on their site at : http://www.tacobell.com/burning_questions/ingredient_statement_06.pdf
i don’t think anyone’s sure about the tortillas. there are mono and diglycerides as well as enzymes, which could be animal or plant.
Are we sure that the refried beans are not made with lard (animal fat)?
“Some well-meaning vegans have chosen to ignore the fast-food market because of its emphasis on fried animal flesh, but the bottom line is this: In order to convince meat-eaters to stop eating animals, vegetarian options must be convenient and available in the places where meat-eaters munch. There will never be vegan or vegetarian options at fast-food chains unless vegetarians and vegans support them. Some of us never thought that we
i heard that that the taco meat at taco bell is made with oats..is that true?
As far as I am aware, (and I learned this in Culinary school a few years ago…things MAY have changed by now..tho I doubt it..)
The meat at Taco Bell is the lowest grade meat that is acceptable to be served. I think it was grade E as opposed to grade A that most people buy in the grocery store. So, yeah, it IS real meat, as far as my Chef told our class, but it is the lowest grade acceptable to sell and filled with preservatives and other “Fillers”.
screw peta and meat tastes goooooooood
Wow–so great to get this ingredient list. I am allergic to wheat and diary — took me 40 years to learn that. Nice to find someplace I can eat with the family.
~Lisa : )
hey y’all!
great post and great comments. just wanted to post an update to a comment that was made earlier about the DATEM that is found in the flour tortilla shells. i checked the link that was posted in that comment and it didn’t work anymore. i went to the taco bell website and found a pdf of their “ingredient statement.”
http://www.yum.com/nutrition/documents/tb_ingredient_statement.pdf
and yes, that link is straight from the taco bell website despite the fact that it links to yum.com. it does in fact list DATEM as an ingredient in the tortillas, and it looks like a more updated version of the pdf that is listed in the actual blog post above.
Does anyone know if Green Burrito chain (attached to carl’s jr) uses lard in their beans ?
“As far as I am aware, (and I learned this in Culinary school a few years ago…things MAY have changed by now..tho I doubt it..)
The meat at Taco Bell is the lowest grade meat that is acceptable to be served. I think it was grade E as opposed to grade A that most people buy in the grocery store. So, yeah, it IS real meat, as far as my Chef told our class, but it is the lowest grade acceptable to sell and filled with preservatives and other “Fillers”. ”
About this… that’s completely BS and if you were taught that in “culinary school” then you should ask for a refund. In the US all meat is inspected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service which is a part of the USDA. Meat is given either a pass or a fail, it is NOT graded with letters. The only grade’s given to meat in the US is from the USDA and go in this order: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner. Grading is not mandatory and all grades are edible as they passed the same inspection process. So the mere notion that meat is graded by letter grades is false.
Almost VEGETARIAN — casein. If there is casein in Taco Bell rice, then it’s not “almost vegan,” it’s “almost vegetarian,” but not quite. The extraction of casein from milk involves the use of rennet, which is made from calf stomach, and therefore is a MEAT by-product, not just a dairy product. You have to be careful with these corporations — they’re very tricky!
FYI. Here’s information about the meat used at Taco Bell..there is no grading system in regards to meat.
http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/badmeat.asp
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