Taco Bell beef lawsuit dropped

There’s no beef in a recent decision by a law firm to drop a lawsuit against Taco Bell.

This week, the fast food chain gained a victory through the action against the firm named Beasley Allen that questioned the beef content of the filling in the tacos and burritos.

According to the Associated Press, the law firm said it dropped the lawsuit after Taco Bell made changes to its marketing and product disclosure. In its ads, Taco Bell says that it made no changes to its products, ingredients or advertising, no money was exchanged and there was no settlement agreement as a result of the suit being dropped.

Taco Bell has said the allegations were "absolutely wrong" and the federal lawsuit was voluntarily withdrawn by the firm. The false-advertising suit, filed in California in January, alleged the chain's meat mixture has binders and extenders and does not meet federal requirements to be labeled beef. The suit sought to make the company stop calling it "beef," and pay the suing law firm's bill.

Taco Bell says its taco filling contains 88 percent USDA-inspected beef and the rest is water, spices and a mixture of oats, starch and other ingredients that contribute to what it calls the "quality of its product." It says it uses no extenders to add volume to the filling.

Taco Bell has almost 5,600 U.S. restaurants. In the ads, Taco Bell gets in a final dig at the lawyers who brought the ill-fated suit — "You got it wrong, and you're probably feeling pretty bad right about now. But you know what always helps? Saying to everyone, 'I'm sorry.' C'mon, you can do it!"

Beef or no beef? You be the judge.