Building H Index

 

Taco Bell

 
 

INDUSTRY

food

Category

restaurant chain

products Profiled

Taco Bell restaurants

 
 

H-Score

 

30

ranked 14th (tie) of 16 within food industry

ranked 29th (tie) of 37 overall

 
 

product description

 

Taco Bell is a chain of fast food restaurants, estimated to have over 6,500 outlets across the U.S.(1) It serves meals throughout the day and evening, offering consistent menus throughout the U.S. It serves fast Mexican food, such as tacos, burritos, nachos and quesadillas.

 

product usage

 

Customers can purchase food by ordering at the counter, at a drive-thru window (where available), or via a website or app. In recent years, customers can also have Taco Bell’s food delivered via a delivery service such as DoorDash, Grubhub or Uber Eats. Customers can eat inside the restaurants or take their meals away. Taco Bell is now offering a subscription program in which subscribers get a taco a day by paying a $10 monthly fee.(2)

 

influence on health-related behaviors

 
 

EATING

slight to moderate negative influence

 

Taco Bell serves fast food, which, broadly speaking, can be unhealthy. Researchers have found 70% of meals served at fast food restaurants (not specific to Taco Bell) to be of poor nutritional quality.(3)

Taco Bell was found to have a Restaurant Nutrition Quality (RNQ) score of 1.20 in a study by USC researchers that looked at the nutritional quality of the menus of over 500 chain restaurant brands.(4) (The RNQ is the ratio of nutrients recommended by dietary guidelines, e.g. protein and fiber, to ingredients whose consumption should be restricted, such as sugars, sodium and saturated fats, for the median menu item. A score of more than 1.0 means that the median menu item has more recommended nutrients than restricted nutrients.) Taco Bell’s score places it in the 79th percentile (higher is better) of the chain restaurants that were evaluated.

In terms of calories, a sample of featured breakfast meal combos averaged 800 calories, representing 2.3 times the recommended calories for women at breakfast and 1.8 times the recommended calories for men at breakfast.(5) For their standard menu, featured meal combos averaged 1062 calories, or 1.9 times the recommended calories for women at lunch, 1.5 times the recommended calories for men at lunch, 1.6 times the recommended calories for women at dinner, and 1.2 times the recommended calories for women at dinner. Approximately 5-10% percent of Taco Bell’s sales take place during the breakfast hours, 30-40% percent during lunch hours and 30-40% percent during dinner hours.(6)

Taco Bell does not feature or facilitate the choice of its healthier items in its online menus. The most prominent items are those for which Taco Bell is most well-known, such as tacos, burritos, nachos and quesadillas. Some healthier items, such as “veggie cravings” are available lower down on its menu.

Taco Bell’s online ordering process does not promote additional consumption through the use of cross-selling. Once you add an item to your order, you’re offered the opportunity to check out and when you check out, you are not prompted to add additional items.

 

opportunities:

  • Feature healthier items more prominently in menu presentation and in recommendations.
  • Enable users to set preferences for calorie limits and/or how healthy they want their diets to be and then tailor their ordering experience and recommendations accordingly.
  • Do not recommend additional items after users pass a reasonable calories per person level.
 
 

PHYSICAL ACTVITY

slight negative influence

 

One way in which restaurants contribute to physical activity is how people arrive at them. Restaurants in walkable locations are more likely to get customers to walk or bike to them than restaurants located in car-dependent neighborhoods. Building H reviewed a sample of Taco Bell locations and found that 69% were in either “most walkable” (37%) or “above-average walkable” (32%) neighborhoods. 31% were in “below-average walkable” (28%) or “least walkable” (3%) neighborhoods, using the US EPA’s National Walkability Index.(7)

An additional factor that affects physical activity is the presence of drive-thru windows, which enable customers to pick up meals without ever leaving their cars. 100% of the Taco Bell locations Building H reviewed had drive-thru service available. Taco Bell is estimated to get approximately 70% of its sales from drive-thru service.(8)

Taco Bell has introduced the Cantina concept for urban areas where there would be no drive-through service.(9) Cantinas, which are also designed to encourage customers to stay around and dine there, represent less than 1% of Taco Bell locations.(10)

 

opportunities:

  • Reduce emphasis on drive-thru service.
  • Build on the Cantina experiment to offer more restaurants that encourage customers to arrive on foot or by bicycle.
 
 

Sleeping

slight to moderate negative influence

 

Studies have shown that eating within three hours before bedtime increases the likelihood of sleep disruption.(11)

Taco Bell locations are typically open until midnight or 1:00 am. Based on Google data about a sample of locations, it appears that approximately 10-15% of Taco Bell’s activity takes place after 9:00 pm.

Note that late night eating does not necessarily result in eating shortly before bedtime or extending into people’s sleep windows as there is diversity in daily schedules (due to reasons such as shift work).

 
 

Engaging Socially

slight negative influence

 

Eating in a restaurant can be a social experience, especially when one eats with family or friends. It is not clear how many of Taco Bell’s customers eat in the restaurant in groups or take food out for groups.

A Building H analysis of Google data on a sample of Taco Bell locations shows that the typical amount of time spent at Taco Bell is between 10 and 15 minutes(12), which suggests that most customers are not staying to eat in the restaurant.

Drive-thru service and delivery service would typically involve less social interaction. Building H reviewed a sample of Taco Bell locations and found that 100% offer drive-thru service. It is not clear what proportion of orders are either delivered; drive-thru sales are estimated to be 70% of Taco Bell’s total sales. 

Taco Bell’s Cantina line of restaurants appear to be designed to encourage customers to stay and eat in the restaurant.

 

opportunities:

  • Build on the Cantina experiment to offer more restaurants that encourage customers to eat in the restaurants.
 
 

Getting Outdoors

slight negative influence

 

Providing outdoor seating can positively influence the amount of time that customers spend outdoors. Building H reviewed a sample of Taco Bell locations and found that only 7% offer outdoor seating.

The walkability of restaurant locations can influence the amount of time customers spend outdoors. The more walkable, the more likely it is that customers walk or bike to and from the locations and thus spend time outdoors. As noted above, 69% of Taco Bell's locations were in either “most walkable” or “above-average walkable” neighborhoods, while 31% were in “below-average walkable” or “least walkable” neighborhoods.

The availability of drive-thru service can similarly influence outdoor time by affecting the likelihood of walking or biking. Approximately 100% of Taco Bell locations have drive-thru service.

 

opportunities:

  • Offer outdoor seating at more restaurants.
 
 
 
 

Notes

 

  1. Based on 2018 data. See Ranking The Top 50 Fast-Food Chains in America. QSR. Accessed February 12, 2022

  2. Amelia Lucas. Taco Bell launches taco-a-day subscription program nationwide to drive visits. CNBC. January 6, 2022.

  3. Junxiu Liu et al. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 150, Issue 4, April 2020, pp. 873–883.

  4. Iris Liu et al. A continuous indicator of food environment nutritional quality. MedRxiv. November 26, 2021

  5. Based on a Building H review of the top five listed meal combos, as compared with federal data on how Americans distribute their calories across meals (see Eliana Zeballos et al. Frequency and Time of Day That AmericansEat: A Comparison of Data From the AmericanTime Use Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. USDA Economic Research Service, Technical Bulletin Number 1954. July 2019) and federal dietary guidelines for moderately active adults (see U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. December, 2020. P. 140).

  6. Based on a Building H review of Google’s “popular times” data for a sample of 20 randomly selected Taco Bell locations.

  7. Based on a sample of over 200 locations (data from Yelp and Google). For the National Walkability Index, see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. National Walkability Index: Methodology and User Guide. June 2021.

  8. Jonathan Maze. Taco Bell Taking Its Cantina Concept to the Next Level. Restaurant Business. March 6, 2020

  9. Maze (2020)

  10. Amelia Lucas. Taco Bell will test its alcohol-serving Cantina locations in the suburbs. CNBC. March 5, 2020

  11. Nicola Chung et al. Does the Proximity of Meals to Bedtime Influence the Sleep of Young Adults? A Cross-Sectional Survey of University Students. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr 14;17(8):2677

  12. Based on a Building H review of Google’s data on how much time people typically spend at a location for a random sample of Taco Bell locations.