The trouble with urban myths is how persistent, and often damning, they can be. Take fast-food giant Arby’s, for example. Though it’s the second-largest fast-food sandwich chain in the United States, one urban myth about the meat in its roast beef sandwich — namely, that it’s fake — has been thoroughly debunked. Yet this rumor was attributed to the restaurant’s massive decline in sales in the early 2000s. It’s just one of several facts about Arby’s that might surprise you.
The rumor had already been circulating for years. Myth-busting site Snopes.com says it first received this question about Arby’s roast beef back in 1997, prompting its fact checkers to go right to the source: Jim Lowder, head of quality assurance, assured them that Arby’s roast beef is in fact real beef soaked in a self-basting solution. Still, the rumor seems to have persisted.
In 2014, a journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution typed a question into Ask.com: What is Arby’s roast beef made of? The search engine’s response was less than appetizing: The product was delivered as a liquid in a bag, squirted as a liquid onto a tray, then baked to convert it to a solid before slicing for sandwiches. The journalist shared the reply, and the rumor spread like wildfire. Though a Business Insider journalist was invited to go behind the scenes with Arby’s employees to see the meat’s origins for herself in 2015, the damage was done. The public has continued to view Arby’s roast beef sandwich with skepticism. In fact, even in the 2020s, it has provoked speculation on Reddit.
The truth about Arby’s roast beef
So what’s the real deal? Why do people continue to believe Arby’s roast beef is fake, despite evidence to the contrary? One could argue that the 2014 rumor has just stubbornly held on, though the beef’s unusually smooth and fat-free appearance and texture might lead one to think it’s not real. And this isn’t the only marketing problem Arby’s has faced — from its unappreciated and quickly forgotten oven-mitt mascot to a sales slump caused by a lackluster ad campaign. But the fake meat myth has been particularly hard to shake.
As Snopes explains, Arby’s stores receive the roast beef in large, pre-cooked blocks packaged inside bags full of a self-basting liquid, or marinade. It’s then slow-roasted for three to four hours, cooled, and sliced to order for sandwiches. The meat, Arby’s insists (and employees and other sources have corroborated), is indeed real beef. According to its full list of menu ingredients, its roast beef contains beef, water, salt, and sodium phosphates. It’s not, however, clear what cuts of beef Arby’s uses for its sandwiches, though the meat is not mechanically separated and is made from USDA-inspected whole roasts of beef. So why have people mistaken it for “liquid meat”? The bag in which it arrives is filled with a thick, gelatinous self-basting solution, which Lowder told Snopes.com “contains just enough water to keep the meat juicy” during the slow-roasting period.
