Taco Bell Employees Have Warned About Ordering These Menu Items

If you've ever had a friend get a job in fast food, you've probably asked them if there are certain menu items to avoid. Maybe an item isn't prepared in a way that inspires confidence, to put it euphemistically. In the age of the internet, you don't even need friends in the drive-thru. Just scroll social media, and you'll find plenty of people claiming to be Taco Bell workers who are willing to spill the beans. 

Now, Taco Bell is a fast-food joint with many virtues: it's quick, it's cheap, and it's delicious. It's not real Mexican food, and that's fine. In the same way that a Big Mac and a tavern burger are different, so too is the Cheesy Gordita Crunch a separate entity from carnitas in Michoacán. Eating fast food comes with a certain understanding that you are sacrificing a bit of quality. That does not mean fast food is gross or secretly inedible — unless, of course, an employee decides to let you in on a little secret.

If you've never had the pleasure of "living más," our beginner's guide to ordering Taco Bell is a good place to start before reading this list of cautionary tales. There really is a lot to love about the menu, whether you like your plate covered in cheese or prefer healthier, tomato-filled fresco-style burritos. Still, buyer beware applies to fast food, and we've scoured the internet to learn these kitchen secrets. Here's what we found.

Maybe this fact will put you off, maybe it won't. The first thing to know about all Taco Bell meat, though, is that it arrives at the store pre-cooked and bagged. The meat is then warmed up in a hot water bath before going on the line. Yes, this even applies to cantina chicken. Having a fancy-sounding name does not spare you from the realities of fast-food prep. This by itself does not mean the beef, chicken, or steak is low quality, but some people don't like the thought of it being prepared in this way.

Some good news is that the original shredded chicken, which one person on TikTok claiming to be a former employee said could contain bones, has been discontinued and replaced by cantina chicken. The chicken is from domestic farms and inspected by the USDA. As for Taco Bell's beef, that is USDA premium grade, seasoned and packaged with a little water to lock in flavor and prevent drying out. Still, the specter of the hot water bath looms over every Bell. If the meat heating method sounds too unappetizing, luckily, Taco Bell's vegan options are delicious and abundant.

Refried beans are a common ingredient in Taco Bell menu items, and the bean burrito is where refried beans take center stage. It's a fairly simple burrito, featuring the titular legumes, shredded cheddar, onions, and red sauce. The issue comes with bean preparation. Beans arrive at Taco Bell dehydrated, before being brought to life with hot water and stirring, and one employee shared a video of the prep on TikTok, expressing disgust. Admittedly, it's strange, seeing a pile of what looks like little pebbles turn into passable refried kidney beans with just a little elbow grease and liquid heat. For what it's worth, a different employee on YouTube had more cheer in their voice while making a bean preparation video.

Of course, the beans and bean burritos are still safe to eat. Want some more good news? Both refried and black beans are certified vegan by the American Vegetarian Association (via Taco Bell). If you like the way they taste, then that's that. Add some onions, cheddar, and red sauce, wrap it up, and have a party. But if the preparation matters, though, consider yourself warned.

Since the rise of Chipotle in the late aughts, the convenient cultural joke about guac is that it costs extra. Guacamole was on the Taco Bell line for years before that, though, waiting in a squeeze gun to be added to burritos or squirted on top of nachos. And yes, an actual squeeze gun, just like Daisy Squeeze sour cream, except with guacamole. Utilizing squeeze-gun technology is likely a major time saver in the Taco Bell kitchen, but is it a marker of good quality? Not according to Taco Bell employees.

Now, you might be thinking that the best guacamole is freshly made and features a few fresh ingredients. You're right, but having an employee work a mortar and pestle all day would dramatically increase drive-thru wait times. Taco Bell's guacamole ingredients have a little more going on than your basic avocado, lime, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. It also seems to make some employees queasy. One Redditor claiming to be a Taco Bell employee alleged that the guac was often left in a warm environment, and said it was the only ingredient that they wouldn't eat in a different comment. The choice is still yours when you order, but know that some employees might be side-eyeing your food.

This warning is a little milder than others, since cheese is on just about every item at Taco Bell (unless you order your food fresco style, of course, which removes cheese, sour cream, and mayo-based sauces). The shredded cheese at Taco Bell looks, smells, and tastes fine, but what you have to worry about are preservatives. 

Someone claiming to be a Taco Bell employee on Reddit said that the cheese doesn't expire for almost a year. Have you ever seen a supermarket block of cheese with such a generous expiration date? However, according to this former employee, Taco Bell is going through bags of cheese so fast that you're never really at risk of getting old or unpleasantly aging cheese. Still, this fact is worth bearing in mind if you're concerned about consuming preservatives.

Pre-shredded cheese comes with all sorts of anti-caking agents and cellulose. Anti-caking agents prevent clumping, but they also suck up moisture. Cellulose is perfectly fine to eat, but it interferes with the cheese's melting. Melted cheese is a huge part of Taco Bell's menu, yet the company is using cheese that is not optimal for melting. However, fast food always requires a bit of sacrifice in terms of ingredient quality, and as the employee on Reddit said, the cheese is real. 

When Taco Bell rolled out breakfast in 2014, it was met with curiosity. Egg tacos are amazing and breakfast burritos are magical, but how would Taco Bell do breakfast? Would they be like Wendy's, cracking fresh eggs? According to employees, no. Eggs at Taco Bell come in liquid form and are delivered bagged up.

In Taco Bell kitchens, most taco fillings are heated with hot water baths. Dried beans get rehydrated with warm water, and meat gets shipped to the store in refrigerated bags before spending time in a hot bath. Eggs are no different; it might be surprising to learn this, but it's not too off-putting if it tastes good, right?

For some people, scrambled eggs getting the sauna treatment is a bridge too far. One person on Reddit claiming to be an employee said that there is also no seasoning, which for many is another strike. Another Redditor, also claiming to be an employee, compared the process to poaching eggs. That's maybe not exactly one-to-one, but it is a good reminder that eggs cooked in water can be delicious. Also, for what it's worth, Taco Bell has been using cage-free eggs for breakfast items since 2016, and cage-free eggs across all menu items since 2018.

Not everyone knows this, but Taco Bell has fryers; chalupas, chips, and potatoes all get fried in the store every day. Chalupas are basically a taco with a fried shell, and their enemy is the passage of time. If chalupas aren't selling well that day, old chalupas can sometimes sit on the heat rack far longer than is optimal. One frustrated customer shared a video to Reddit that depicted a chalupa shell snapping like a fallen twig on a dusty hiking trail. Another poster claiming to be an employee said that the level of quality on display was embarrassing for Taco Bell workers.

According to one employee's video on YouTube, frying a new batch of chalupas only takes 50 seconds. Maybe you risk extra wait time by doing this, but it might be worth asking the person taking your order whether the chalupa shells are fresh. That might be an annoyance to a worker, but it does save you and them from the sorrows of old chalupa shells.

Taco Bell's peppery, savory-seasoned nacho fries are a real treat, the perfect side to go with a Crunchwrap Supreme, if you like the idea of a burger and fries but really want a Mexican-inspired lunch. Keep your wits about you when tasting your order of nacho fries, though. According to one Taco Bell employee on TikTok, the return of nacho fries means a return of customer complaints. Part of the reason for this is that stores inevitably have new employees who haven't worked with nacho fries before, and don't quite have the dropping and seasoning processes down yet.

Another employee on TikTok claims that fries should be dropped every 15 minutes to ensure freshness, which is a significant addition to kitchen activity for a limited-time offer item. It's understandable if the return of nacho fries requires a day or two of adjustment for the whole crew. So be wary, but don't let us prevent you from ordering these little red potato sticks. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when ordering at Taco Bell is forgetting to get nacho fries alongside other items.

Like most fried items, cinnamon twists can be great when they're fresh out of the fryer. Ask a Taco Bell employee, though, and they'll caution you about these dessert bites. Firstly, contrary to internet myth, cinnamon twists are not made by deep frying rotini. That bit of misinformation cropped up in the 2010s, reaching its zenith in 2020. In fact, uncooked twists resemble rotini before they get all puffy when cooked. Taco Bell's official TikTok even gave a knowing nod to the rumor, but cinnamon twists do have a couple of issues: they tend to absorb the flavor of anything that has recently been fried, and they get stale fast if they sit too long on the line.

According to someone claiming to be a Taco Bell employee on Reddit, few employees are trained on proper fryer cleaning procedures. When uncooked twists puff up while cooking, they're sucking up the flavor of every old chalupa shell, pile of tortilla chips, and anything else someone put in that fryer, and a dusting of cinnamon sugar is not going to salvage it. If the Taco Bell you frequent has a clean fryer, though, you still have possible staleness to contend with, although that does have a potentially tasty solution. Another person claiming to be an employee on Reddit recommends dipping cinnamon twists in sour cream to compensate, saying the result tastes like cheesecake.