Lawsuit for Taco Bell: Is it Really Beef in Their Beef Tacos and Burritos?

Taco Bell is being faced with a lawsuit about how much beef is actually in their beef products. The class action lawsuit, filed by Amanda Obney and others, is not seeking monetary gain just honesty from the company.

According to the class action lawsuit, " the seasoned beef advertised contains water, isolated oat product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltrodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate as well as beef and seasonings." Not just Beef. In fact, beef is pretty low in the ingredient list for Taco Bell beef. The lawsuit is alleging that only 36% of what Taco Bell is calling beef is actually beef.

The lawsuit claims that calling Taco Bell beef "beef" would be against USDA guidelines and could potentially put peoples health at risk. CBS News spoke with Dee Miles, an attorney involved in the class action lawsuit, who stated, "According to the tests that we have taken, the taco meat filling is again about 35 percent meat."

Taco Bell released a statement about the lawsuit, "At Taco Bell, we buy our beef from the same trusted brands you find in the supermarket, like Tyson Foods. We start with 100 percent USDA-inspected beef. Then we simmer it in our proprietary blend of seasonings and spices to give our seasoned beef its signature Taco Bell taste and texture. 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."

The lawsuit against Taco Bell about its beef products comes at a time when people are determined to know what they are eating, even at fast food chains. With places like Monsato, a grower of genetically modified foods, and other organizations like it trying to get approval for their genentically engineered food through the FDA and USDA it is not a shocker that humans feel they have a right to know exactly what is in a product they are purchasing to consume.

It is unclear if Taco Bell will start going the route McDonald's has taken by placing food nutrition labels on the packages of products. Although, the fast food chain may need to start when food labels begin appearing on meat packages in 2012.