Taco Bell Combats Meat Lawsuit With Full-Page Rebuttal

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Thank you for suing us. That's the headline on full-page ads from Taco Bell in newspapers across the country Friday.

“I think when someone sullies your reputation you have to be swift and you have to be decisive,” Taco Bell President Greg Creed told ABC News. “We think our reputation has been sullied and we wanted to put out a headline that certainly drew attention and enables us to tell the story about our beef,” which Creed says is “88 percent USDA inspected, and not the 35 percent that’s being claimed.”

Taco Bell is retaining outside council, Creed said, and they will take whatever legal action is available.

“I think attacking our brand is like attacking a person. It’s just unacceptable when there aren’t any facts to support it,” Creed said Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Taco Bell claims they use 88 percent beef, three percent water, four percent seasoning and a five percent combination of other ingredients.  But the attorneys filing the lawsuit against the fast food chain told ABC News that the ingredients in the beef contain things “regular people do not use in recipes cooked at home.”

When asked why the taco chain's beef contains “isolated oat product,” Creed said “I’m not a food scientist. But what I can assure everybody is that every ingredient is in there for a purpose.”

“There are no fillers. There are no substitutes. There are no extenders. I can absolutely assure you of that,” he said.

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