Back when we reported on the introduction of a Taco Bell breakfast, my personal first impression was that not enough of the day had passed by breakfast-time to shed enough pride in order to consume Taco Bell- followed by idly wondering who is that drunk at eight in the morning?

Taco Bell breakfast kind of sounds as appealing as Taco Bell seafood- that is to say, you imagine some people must eat it, but you can’t imagine who those people might be or what on Earth would possess them to do such a thing. I happen to fall into the (not uncommon) camp of being unable to find food appetizing for the first two or so hours of every day, but when I do get a bit peckish, generally chimichangas or anything appended with the words “bell grande” don’t immediately spring to mind.

And yet for some reason- much as we may resent fast food for being so cheap and so accessible, tempting us away from food made out of actual food- newly introduced or limited edition fast food sometimes draws one in for the curiosity factor. As may be the case with Taco Bell breakfast, we’ve observed such interest surrounding McDonald’s massively overhyped McRib sandwich. I myself fell victim to such pique at 3AM one cold and hungry winter night, and the resultant gelatinous pork byproduct comprised horror haunts me to this day.

A panel of reviewers set upon the new Taco Bell breakfast- which, alas, is not available in East Coast markets- and had this to say about the items:

“If I have a burrito and this, I’m just going home and not going to work.”

“This is just a big, crunchy grease-bomb!”

“First thing, right off the bat, it’s half the size of their Crunch Wrap Supreme, which is like a Frisbee. Easy to carry. An easy in-your-car eat. Because it’s got a pocket, unlike a burrito which can squish out while you’re driving.”

So one overriding feature of the menu is that it’s got pockets- an attribute lacking from many foods, I find. Have you yet sampled a Taco Bell breakfast?

Taco Bell Breakfast: Experts Weigh In, Is It ‘That’ Horrifying? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Taco Bell breakfast menu’s made their way into 800 of the company’s 5,600 restaurants on Thursday, marking the first time that the fast food service has offered breakfast foods.

The initially launched is based mostly in the western US but the company hopes to have all restaurants nationwide serving breakfast based foods before the end of 2014.

Options on the new menu include breakfast burritos with eggs and meat, sausage and egg wraps, orange juice, coffee and other traditional American breakfast foods with a slight twist. Items currently range in price from 99 cents to $2.79.

To fully serve its breakfast options the company has partnered with some big names in the breakfast industry including Cinnabon, Seattle’s Best, Johnsonville and others.

The move is largely seen as a way for Taco Bell to expand profits at a time when poor economic conditions have led many people to eat-in rather than purchase more expensive food from local diners.

Speaking about the company’s push an executive at Taco Bell told the Associated Press:

“We want to get our fair share and then some.”

In the meantime don’t expect a 6am Taco Bell breakfast burrito as the company will open later then its competitors and focus more on the younger crowd who tend to wake up later in the day.

Given the fact that I can make Johnsonville food at home in a matter of minutes I have a feeling I’ll be sticking to breakfast at home for the near future.

Would you be willing to forget about buying a McMuffin if you could eat a breakfast burrito from Taco Bell instead?

Taco Bell Launches Breakfast Menu In 800 Restaurants is a post from: The Inquisitr

As if the 1/3 of Americans who are already overweight or obese need any help making their way to a Whopper Burger King has announced plans to expand its fast food delivery service to new locations.

The fast food chain has been testing a home/business delivery service in four Washington DC stores and reports are now circulating that they plan to expand the program to more areas.

At this time the biggest concern for consumers is that burgers and french friends don’t travel well, a problem Burger King is attempting to fix with  ”proprietary thermal packaging technology.”

According to one executive that technology will ensure

“The Whopper is delivered hot and fresh, and the French fries are delivered hot and crispy.”

Of course Burger King isn’t going to be willing to send an employee to your door with a $1 order of fries so the company has set a minimum between $8 and $10 depending on the store location.

The company has also modified a few options, for example fountain drinks have been replaced by bottles and they are not offering breakfast delivery at this time, instead running the beta programs from 11am to 10pm.

If this program is a success and obesity rises I’m calling that a direct correlation, after all nobody needs to have a Whopper delivered to their home unless they don’t have the ability to leave for some reason. Perhaps this program will be a huge success for those people under house arrest.

Would you be willing to order fast food for home delivery from Burger King?

Burger King Plans To Expand Delivery Service, Create All Out Assault On Obesity is a post from: The Inquisitr

Taco Bell and tortilla chip maker Doritos have teamed up to reinvent the taco shell with the goodness of Doritos cheesiness and the crunch allure of a Taco Bell taco.

The idea came about after parent company Yum Brands decided to join forces further with PepsiCo (owners of the Doritos brand).

The Taco’s actually debuted in selected San Joaquin Valley, California markets at the start of 2011 where they were a hit for both company’s.

The company claims that the Doritos Locos Tacos will “reinvent the taco” and help Taco Bell push away competitors. To compensate for the more flavorful taco shells the company is said to have added a more mild mixture to their Doritos taco filling.

As if trying to eat a Taco in your car after waiting 15 minutes in their drive thru wasn’t bad enough, now you’ll have to get all of that famous orange Doritos powder off your hands as well.

Here’s a Doritos Locos Tacos commercial from their California test market:

Give the Doritos Locos Tacos a try today and let us know what you think. I’m personally a bit afraid.

Taco Bell Announces Doritos Flavored Taco Shell is a post from: The Inquisitr

That McRib you like to run out and scarf down the minute it arrives for a limited time at McDonald’s has a dark and sad side. The Humane Society this week filed a complaint against McDonald’s meat supplier Smithfield Foods who they say have misled consumers about the treatment of their animals.

McDonald’s has recently given Smithfield a “supplier sustainability” award and the company calls their pigs living conditions “ideal” while claiming to be “100% committed” to their care however an undercover investigation by the Humane Society has found just the opposite to be true.

James McWilliams at the Atlantic offered some scary details about the company’s living conditions for pigs:

• Gestration crates were so small pigs couldn’t move.
• Some Crates were covered in blood as pigs chewed the bars.
• Pigs are routinely castrated without anesthesia.
• No Veterinarians were witnessed on site at any time.

According to a humane society representative:

“It doesn’t take a veterinarian to know that locking a 500-pound animal in a cage so cramped she can’t even turn around for months on end isn’t exactly ‘ideal.”

In the meantime rather than heeding the advice of their own animal welfare advisors and removing gestation crates from their supply chain McDonald’s is handing out awards to the very company’s that use them.

If that isn’t enough to gross you out the McRib is typically made from the parts of the pig that are left over from regular production, hence the fact it’s only made available for a “limited time.”

[Image via Bull's-Eye Arts / Shutterstock.com]

McRib Pigs Live In Horrendous Conditions, Complaint Filed By Humane Society is a post from: The Inquisitr

McDonald’s executives have launched a new TV station that they hope will draw in more customers and engage them when eating their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Currently being testing in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Las Vegas the new TV station features entertainment news, advertising, and informative pieces centering around local moms and athletes.

According to one executive responsible for the project the company hopes McTV will “catch and engage the customer, and then enhance their experience.”

Thanks to the company’s large footprint they are already expected to reach 18 million to 20 million people in the three testing areas alone, one of the largest audiences for daytime TV while that number would grow exponentially if the program is a success and ends up launching into other markets throughout the United States and possibly worldwide.

The next step will be for McDonald’s to expand their TV station to 800 California restaurants before attempting to go national.

One analyst tells the Los Angeles Times:

“The television didn’t move” and now companies “can tap into anyone’s consumer behavior at every of the day and brand their message.”

Would you sit down and watch TV at McDonald’s if a fast food location near you offered decent programming?

McDonald’s Restaurant Chain Launching Own TV Station is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you thought the food at McDonald’s was going to kill you think again, it could be one of the company’s soda fountain machines.

An 80-year-old woman in Georgia was eating at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant when she went to use the bathroom and never returned, she was later found in the bathroom having died from carbon dioxide poisoning.

It turns out that the substance, used to help carbonate beverages in the machines, was accidentally piped through a leaky gas line in the walls between the soda fountain machine and the restroom.

According to the police chief who was investigating the death, “at a high level of concentration, it displaces oxygen” which cuased the elderly woman to die by way of asphyxiation.

All of the gas lines and valves leading to the soda machine have been replaced and nine other visitors to the fast food restaurant were also treated for symptoms caused by leaked carbon dioxide.

I have a feeling we’ll be reading about a McDonald’s lawsuit in the near future, although the police chief doesn’t anticipate criminal charges since the leak appears to be an accident.

In the meantime the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration have opened an investigation into possible workplace safety violations at the McDonald’s location where the accident occurred.

McDonald’s Soda Fountain Kills Customer is a post from: The Inquisitr

KFC can’t be KFC if they don’t have their hidden blend of herbs and spices and for that reason the company says they were forced this week to close all three of their stores in the country of Fiji.

Company officials told the BBC that the government won’t let them import milk, herbs and spices and since that ban began in 2010 the quality of their product has declined, while food costs have risen, making it impossible to operate stores in the region.

Fiji officials shot back at KFC, stating that the company never filed the proper paperwork for health regulations, they noted:

“The onus is on KFC to provide us with a simple veterinary certificate, that is all we ask.”

Government officials say the company used the import issue to disguise the fact that Fijians don’t like the company’s product.

KFC Closes Fiji Stores After Country Stops Imports Of Needed Ingredients is a post from: The Inquisitr

Fast food and increasing amounts of takeout cuisine seem to be a hot button topic nowadays, with news of Happy Meal toy bans and enforced fruit options dominating the buzz surrounding kids and dining out.

While legislating food choices seems a bit extreme, it seems there’s some data to back up the concern over what’s driving the childhood obesity rate in the US. Aside from…well, higher rates of overweight children, some studies seem to indicate that the calories kids consume from fast food and takeaways could be adding to the number of calories children consume each day.

USA Today reports that the volume of away-from-home food consumed by kids has shot up since 1994, and studies indicate that such meals have jumped from  23.4% of what kids ate in 1977 to 33.9% of their diet in 2006. The piece cited the convenience and perceived cost savings that may tempt parents to go the fast food routs more frequently, but dietician Samantha Heller pointed out:

“We cannot control where these eateries are located or how they prepare their foods, but we can decide to cook more at home, which will ultimately save money and help keep our families healthy.”

On the subject of budget, Heller remarked that for the price of a $5 fast food kids’ meal, you could buy a significant quantity of groceries:

“You would have a healthy dinner and leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch and probably enough left to reinvent dinner by using the remaining ingredients in a salad, frittata or burrito.

“For less than $30, you can buy enough food for several meals, including chicken breast, mushrooms, broccoli, pasta, lettuce, bread, eggs, tomato sauce and salad dressing,” Heller says.

Are you often lured by the siren call of fast food at 8pm on a harried weeknight? Do you worry about your kids’ fast food consumption or preferences?

Fast Food Eats Up Larger Allotment of Kids’ Daily Calories is a post from: The Inquisitr

There has been more than few studies which have shown that there is a link between our growing obesity problem and the lack of access to affordable produce for people to buy and eat, which is in start contrast to the availability of incredibly cheap fast food and carbonated drinks.

The sad part is that for most of the country it is cheaper, especially for a family with children, to go to McDonald’s or Burger King to eat than it is to go to a grocery store and buy the groceries need to make that dinner for four.

Not one to miss a chance to make lots of money Walmart has joined forces with Michelle Obama and her initiative to bring affordable food goods to these areas called food deserts.

In an announcement this week Walmart said that it will be opening up to 300 new locations over the next five years, on top of the 218 they have already opened, and hope to serve some 1.3 million people. This move will make Walmart the biggest grocer in the nation.

Now before we go heralding Walmart and its social conscience let’s realize that they aren’t doing this just out of the goodness of their corporate heart. There is a huge amount of money to be made here and they will be able to do this while paying some of the lowest wages in the nation. Not only that but they are going into areas where they have absolutely no competition.

The only upside to this really, is that at least these food deserts will have a viable alternative to junk and fast food.

via Fast Company

Walmart wants to bring some ‘green’ to the growing food deserts in America is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay KFC has nothing to do with the story but you can be sure that they, like anyone who mass produced chicken parts will definitely be in the market for this champion chicken deboning robot from Mayekawa Manufacturing in Japan.

Not only can this sucker debone a chicken in mere seconds but it can rip through 1,500 chicken breasts in an hour and the manufacturer claims that it can do the same work as 10 full-time workers.

All this for a measly $560,000.

via DVICE

Chicken deboned in seconds – KFC drools [video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

There’s a story that has been floating around the Web for the past couple of weeks about Manhattan artist Sally Davies and her McDonald’s Happy Meal project. The idea behind her project is that every day she takes a picture every day of a McDonald’s Happy Meal that she bought on Saturday April 10, 2010 so that we could see how the food in the meal deal doesn’t decompose.

Here’s a hint – it doesn’t but you can see for yourself on her Flickr photostream for the project. Now as interesting as this project it McDonald’s isn’t the only fast food company who does everything possible to make their food look so good that you can’t help but want to bite into one of their burgers. The problem is, as any one who has bought fast food, that what you get ends up looking nothing at all like the image in the ads.

To illustrate this point the crew over at Geeks are Sexy have posted some images of the real food item beside the one you would see in an advertisement. Needles to say the real thing doesn’t look as appetizing as it is made out to be.

Arby’s Beef ‘n’ Cheddar

McDonald’s Sausage Breakfast Burrito

Wendy’s Chicken Club

What that tasty looking fast food burger really looks like is a post from: The Inquisitr

Santa Clara County in California this week announced that they have begun limiting which kids meals could give toys to children based on their level of calories, fat, salt and sugar levels.

Supervisors passed a 3-2 vote which bans children’s toys in meals that have more than 485 calories.

CNN spoke with county supervisor Ken Yeager who said the new ordinance, “prevents restaurants from preying on children’s love of toys to peddle high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium kids’ meals.”

Under the city ordinance meals must be under 485 calories, 600 milligrams of sodium and have no more than 35 percent of calories from fat and no more than 10 percent of calories from added sugar.

The ordinance also limit toy giveaways on single food items with more than 200 calories or more than 480 milligrams of sodium.

What do you think about the ban? Leave us your thoughts.

Fast Food Fiasco, Kids Meal Toys Removed If Health Standards Fail is a post from: The Inquisitr

Free and low-cost chicken is taking the web by storm today.

Boston Market sent Googlers into a chicken frenzy today with an exclusive coupon for VIP members entitling them to a $1 chicken meal. (Click here for the printable Boston Market coupon, valid from 10/26-11/1.) The promotion is, per Boston Market, in response to KFC’s free chicken day today. KFC has declared today “Unfry day” to promote grilled chicken, prompting the Boston Market coupon. (Let’s hope this run goes more smoothly than the last riotous free chicken promo at KFC that had customers crying “bait and switch.”)

If chicken isn’t your thing or you’re too clumsy to use a knife and fork, there’s another giveaway this week that might interest you. Taco Bell is giving out free Black Jack Tacos on Halloween from 6pm until midnight if you’re not put off by black tortilla shells. Stealing your kids’ candy after they fall asleep remains free.

Chicken discount smackdown: Boston Market v. KFC is a post from: The Inquisitr

This might sound like the beginning of a joke but the fact is that this is exactly what happened in a Darwin City, Australia, 24-hour eatery on Monday.when he ordered two buckets of chips to go. A witness, Steveb Baslick, was asked by two really drunk revellers if he would take some pictures of one of them doing some Jack Ass thing.

When he agreed one of the men stripped down to his birthday suit and proceeded to go into the shop to place his order to go. His companion apparently was to embarrassed and stayed outside. Mr. Baslick was a little surprised by the lack of resistance of the woman taking and filling the naked gentleman’s order. Apparently the woman just smiled a lot while doing her job.

The thing I want to to know; or maybe not, is where was the guy keeping the money to pay for the food? Which reminds me .. where were you Duncan on Monday??

Source: Northern Territory News

So this naked guy walked into the shop and ordered…. is a post from: The Inquisitr