Misleading Labels

Walsh, Bryan. “Where’s The Beef?” TIME 7 February 2011, 50-51. Print. 20
           September 2011.

In “Where’s The Beef?” author Bryan Walsh discusses the popular issue of what is actually in the food we eat. He supports his argument with an example of a lawsuit filed against Taco Bell concerning the percentage of actual beef in their meat. He then moves on to and supports his main point – that we ultimately cannot trust labeling.

By writing this article, Walsh intended to raise awareness of the fact that we never really know what we are putting into our mouths (especially when fast food is concerned). He most likely meant for his audience to be the average American or any other person who indulges in McDonald’s every once in a while. After all, the ingredients in our meals affect us in many ways we are unaware of.

Walsh’s argument revolved around his example of the Taco Bell case. To summarize the lawsuit, a woman was unimpressed with the quality of her taco meat. She sued Taco Bell, saying their beef was not actually beef at all (or an extremely low percentage of it).

Walsh uses evidence from a few different sources, and it is difficult to decide which one to believe. However, that is part of the nature of the subject – it is hard to find the truth when it comes to food labeling. He wrote that Taco Bell claims their meat is 88% beef, the USDA says 40%, and the lawsuit says 35%. So who should consumers trust?

This leads to questions about the ingredients in other meals. And it’s not just about meat. Many people are unaware of the extreme amounts of additives in their food. For example, as Walsh quoted, “A McDonald’s Chicken McNugget… has an ingredient list that looks like a page from a chemistry textbook.”

Walsh also provides examples of other misleading labels. For example, McDonald’s “Fruit and Maple Oatmeal” does not actually contain maple syrup, and Juicy Juice’s “100% juice” claim is correct, but not usually about the actual type of juice inferred on the label.

Walsh wrote his article with just a hint of bias. While he does compromise slightly by saying that none of these ingredients will actually HARM you, he obviously supports more truthful food labeling. He ends with a kind of call to action, but he changes his tone slightly by saying that “The scandal in fast food isn’t what’s missing; it’s what’s there.” By doing this he acknowledges that labeling is often untruthful but also encourages people to look closer to other things like calorie and fat content.

Fast food companies should definitely be more truthful when it comes to food labeling. People deserve to know exactly what they are eating. If more lawsuits like that against Taco Bell come out, people may stop trusting fast food chains altogether. It would benefit the restaurants and the people who eat there if they were to tell the truth from the start.

This would be a good topic for me. It has always interested me that commercials and advertisements could lie about the products they promote. I could expand the subject beyond food and into other areas like infomercials as well. For this reason, I also believe this would be a good topic for others. It’s interesting and affects every single person who has ever eaten at a fast food restaurant or bought something based on an advertisement.