Similar most fast-food chains, Taco Bong has dealt with plenty of urban legends environs its grub. Surely, y'all've had someone with glazed eyes watch you lot eat a Crunchwrap Supreme and say, "Hey man, did you know Taco Bell beef is practicallyvegan because it has so little actual beef."

In fact, it was rumors like that one that first compelled the fast-food concatenation to share the ingredients for its meat—which is says is 88% "USDA-inspected" footing beef—on its website back in 2011. And at present, that website has gone viral afterwards news outlets likeTimeandBusiness Insider noticed the appearance of agreeable colloquial explanations of some of the unfamiliar ingredients that make up that other 12%.

Every bit Eater critic Ryan Sutton pointed out, it almost sounds like a modernist cuisine manual, with sections on maltodextrin and soy lecithin:

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Hither's the full ingredient list for Taco Bong beefiness, should you want to effort to crack the recipe at dwelling. The good news is that the first ingredient really is beef:

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The website's explanations gesture in the management of transparency, though at that place's certainly some slick copy-writing going on, like connecting modified corn starch to real Mexican cooking because, well, Mexicans swallow corn likewise.

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Here'south a quick await at the ingredients that make upward the "other 12%" of Taco Bell's beefiness:

one. Maltodextrin

What it is:A powdered starch that's usually made from corn or potatoes, usually used to enhance texture. In the U.Due south. and Canada, it's exclusively made from corn or potatoes. (As an aside, those of you who are gluten-free may want to be careful about maltodextrin in products from other countries, as it'due south sometimes made from wheat or barley.)

2. Trehalose

What it is: A type of sugar that is only about 40-45% as sweet as table sugar.

3. Torula yeast

What it is: Firstly, it's not something y'all demand to run into your md near. It's a type of yeast that's used as a flavor enhancer in many packaged foods, from chips to crackers. Taco Bong says information technology gives its beef "a more savory taste."

iv. Modified corn starch

What it is:It's a corn-based thickener that'southward made with basic corn starch, which is then chemically modified to innovate other qualities to it. While it still thickens like standard corn starch (which yous might use in puddings or to thicken some sauces, if you cook), modified corn starch likewise improves shelf life.

5. Soy lecithin

What information technology is: It's an emulsifier that naturally occurs as a byproduct of making soybean oil. Bachelor in powdered form, it's actually as well used to make all those fancy foams you see in molecular gastronomy. Emulsification brings together two ingredients that otherwise would naturally exist repelled by i some other—like the oil and vinegar in your salad dressing. In Taco Bell's case, it keeps the ground beefiness and fatty from separating. And as used in modernist cooking, adding it to depression- or no-fat liquids creates foam.

vi. Sodium phosphates

What they are: More than emulsifiers, simply with additional properties including regulating acidity/alkalinity in food, stabilizing ingredients in food, and preventing oxidation—in other words, preventing the browning that occurs in some foods (such as raw beefiness) due to oxygen exposure. Yous've already eaten these many times if you've eaten deli meats.

seven. Lactic acid

What it is: A naturally-derived ingredient used to control acidity.

8. Caramel color

What it is: A somewhat controversial nutrient coloring that makes things brown. It'south usually constitute in many sodas that y'all beverage, and is the nearly commonly used food coloring agent in the world. Sounds harmless enough, correct? The controversy stems from some types of this coloring containing a potentially carcinogenic ingredient chosen 4-methylimidazole, or 4-Mel, for short. Taco Bell, for the record, says that it'southward "caramelized sugar."

nine. Cocoa pulverization

What information technology is: You probably mixed information technology up and drank information technology all wintertime, possibly with alcohol. It also makes things chocolate-brown, which you plant out the difficult manner if y'all got information technology on your shirt.

[via Good Morning America]

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