Taco Bell Will Soon Have All-Natural Ingredients, But Don’t Worry — The Doritos Locos Tacos Will Be Spared

How do you make Taco Bell more delicious than it already is? Add real, all-natural ingredients just like those other fast-casual Mexican chains that rhyme with “flipolte.” Say goodbye to Taco Bell nacho cheese colored with yellow No. 6 (…isn’t that the stuff that kills your sperm?) and all artificial flavors and colors. In a statement yesterday, Greg Creed, the CEO of Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum Brands, said “We have to clean up our menu labels. What people want are things on labels that they can pronounce…. We have to pull preservatives out.”

Very noble. The changes will be made by the end of the year. Via WSJ:

The chain said it would also take out additives like added trans fats and hopes to remove additional artificial preservatives and additives by the end of 2017.

The changes affect more than 95% of Taco Bell’s core food items, the company said Tuesday, but it doesn’t apply to beverages or to co-branded items. A spokeswoman confirmed that the exempt items include its Doritos Locos Tacos, an item based on PepsiCo Inc.’s Doritos snack chips that is one of Taco Bell’s best-selling products.

But, hey — GOOD NEWS!!! Doritos Locos Tacos will be spared from this all-natural health kick. Thanks for staying true to your principles, Taco Bell. Via another WSJ article:

The changes won’t apply to beverages and co-branded products, a Taco Bell spokeswoman explained. But the popular Doritos taco shells contain some of the least simple-looking ingredients on the menu.

The nacho cheese shell variety contains the food dyes yellow 5 & 6 and red 40, a controversial coloring that’s been linked to hyperactivity in children and has been banned in several European countries. The Cool Ranch shell is made with red 40, yellow 5 & 6 lake and blue 1.

Something tells me the food you put in your body probably shouldn’t have more coloring dyes added to it than Kesha’s hair.

If Taco Bell were to partner with Doritos maker PepsiCo, it could find plenty of natural colorings and flavors to use as substitutes. The nacho cheese shells already contain annatto, which is derived from the seed of the achiote, a small tree that grows in the tropics. Nature is full of plants and herbs that can be used to color food, such as beets, which can be extracted to make the red food dye betanin, and butterfly pea, which can be made into a blue food dye.

All of the Doritos taco shell varieties contain TBHQ, or tertiary butylhydroquinone, a chemical used as a preservative in food and as a corrosion inhibitor in biodiesel. It’s also added to perfumes and varnishes to lower their evaporation rate. (via)

Mmm… Nothing like a drunken biodiseal corrosion inhibitor taco at 3 AM.

Then again, as long as it keeps your taco crunchy, I don’t care what’s in it.

Brandon Wenerd is BroBible's publisher, writing on this site since 2009. He writes about sports, music, men's fashion, outdoor gear, traveling, skiing, and epic adventures. Based in Los Angeles, he also enjoys interviewing athletes and entertainers. Proud Penn State alum, former New Yorker. Email: brandon@brobible.com