Taco Bell vs. Del Taco vs. Jack in the Box: 20 Fast-Food Tacos Scored Out of 100

Here is the full ranking at a glance. Scores are rounded to the nearest whole number; where two tacos share a rounded score, the one with the higher unrounded total ranks first. The nutrient column is out of 75 and the shell column is out of 10. The ultra-processing column is left out because every taco scored 0 of 15.

The pattern jumps out almost immediately. The first six spots all belong to tacos with corn shells, and the bottom four are all built on flour tortillas or chalupa shells with breaded chicken, big fillings or both.

The Daily Vitality Score was built for packaged foods, where every product has a weight, a single ingredient list and a Nutrition Facts panel. Restaurant tacos have none of those in a tidy form, so this ranking uses a restaurant adaptation of the formula. Here is how it works, in plain terms.

Why per taco instead of per 100 grams. Our grocery rankings score food per 100 g so that a large bag and a small bag are compared fairly. Taco Bell's nutrition guide doesn't publish serving weights, so that wasn't possible here. Instead, every taco is scored as one taco, the way you actually order it, with end points anchored to the FDA's Daily Values.

Nutrients (75 points). Four components reward keeping amounts low, with each end point set at or near half of the relevant FDA Daily Value:

Points scale in a straight line between the end points. The 140 mg sodium mark matches the FDA's definition of "low sodium" per serving. Fiber and protein are measured per 100 calories, so a bigger taco doesn't earn extra credit just for being bigger. Taco Bell lists added sugars, which we used; Del Taco and Jack in the Box list only total sugars, which we used and marked with an asterisk. Every taco in the field has 2 g of sugar or less, so the difference doesn't change any ranking.

Ingredients (25 points). A taco is an assembly of parts (shell, protein, cheese, sauce, toppings), each with its own ingredient statement. Two components capture that:

• Shell first ingredient (10 points). A shell whose first ingredient is corn, corn masa or another whole grain earns 10. A shell that starts with enriched or refined wheat flour earns 0.
• Ultra-processing markers (15 points). We counted distinct markers across all of a taco's component statements, using the ingredient and additive classes identified by Monteiro and colleagues in Public Health Nutrition, such as maltodextrin, dextrose, hydrolyzed proteins, flavor enhancers, colors and thickening gums. Each marker costs 3.75 points, with a floor of zero.

The ingredient-count component from the grocery version is dropped for restaurant items, since a list stitched together from five components isn't comparable to a single packaged list.

Bands. 85 to 100 is Excellent, 70 to 84 Good, 55 to 69 Fair, 40 to 54 Weak and under 40 Poor.

What's in and what's out. We started from each chain's current US taco menu and kept only tacos with both a current nutrition row and component ingredient statements. Taco John's was left out because it publishes no ingredient statements. Two Taco Bell Cantina Chicken tacos were left out because the menu's calorie figures don't match the nutrition guide. Nutrition data was captured September 29 and 30, 2026.

If you've read our first ranking in this series, the approach will feel familiar, with the restaurant changes above.

Lay's vs. Doritos vs. SunChips: 16 Popular Chips Scored Out of 100 shows the original per-100 g version of the formula at work.

The Smallest Taco Takes the Top Spot

Here is the twist that sets the tone for the whole ranking: the taco at the top is a value-menu item that's easy to overlook. Del Taco's crunchy Snack Taco is a 53-gram bite of seasoned beef, lettuce and cheddar in a corn shell, and at 135 mg of sodium it is the only taco in this field that slips under FDA's 140 mg "low sodium" line, which earns it every one of the 20 sodium points.

Its protein also lands exactly on the formula's full-marks mark of 5 g per 100 calories. Where it gives ground is fiber (the guide lists 0 g) and the ingredient section, where the seasoned beef alone carries enough ultra-processing markers to empty that bucket. Small size is doing a lot of the work here, and that is worth sitting with: two Snack Tacos land at 270 mg of sodium and 240 calories, which still reads lighter than many single tacos further down this list.

Corn Tortilla, Lean Steak, Almost No Saturated Fat

Del Taco's Carne Asada Steak Street Taco finishes less than a point behind the leader, and it gets there a different way. Its corn tortilla lists corn masa flour first, the steak keeps saturated fat to 1.5 g, and 10 g of protein in a 120-calorie taco works out to more than 8 g per 100 calories, well past the full-marks line.

The cost shows up in sodium. At 420 mg, it gives back 5.5 points, and the tortilla's own statement includes cellulose gum and guar gum while the steak's seasoning adds modified food starch, dextrose and maltodextrin, so the marker bucket is empty again. Onions, cilantro and green sauce round it out, which is part of why the calorie count stays so modest. If you tend to order street tacos in threes, the per-taco numbers multiply neatly: three of these come to 360 calories and 1,260 mg of sodium.

The Original Holds Up Better Than Its Reputation

Taco Bell's Crunchy Taco is the first entry from the chain in the title, and it scores 71, a fraction of a point behind the steak street taco. The recipe is simple on the menu board: seasoned beef, lettuce and cheddar in a shell whose ingredient statement reads "Ground corn, vegetable oil (soybean, corn and/or cottonseed oil), oat fiber." That short list earns the full 10 shell points.

The nutrition line is balanced rather than standout: 170 calories, 310 mg of sodium, 4 g of saturated fat, 3 g of fiber and 7 g of protein, per the Taco Bell nutrition guide. The 3 g of fiber is actually one of the better fiber-per-calorie figures in the field. The biggest drag, as with every taco here, is the seasoned beef's ingredient list, which includes maltodextrin, soy lecithin, natural flavors, disodium inosinate and guanylate, dextrose and modified corn starch.

Same Taco, Cheesier Shell, 60 More Milligrams

This is the entry that tends to start arguments, so here is the plain version: the Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco scores 70, just 1.2 points under the regular Crunchy Taco. Calories, saturated fat, fiber and protein are identical on Taco Bell's guide. The only difference the formula counts is sodium, 370 mg versus 310 mg.

The shell is where the story gets more interesting. It still lists ground corn first, so it keeps the full 10 shell points, but its seasoning adds maltodextrin, whey, monosodium glutamate, disodium inosinate and guanylate, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40 and caramel color. Under a formula that counts markers across the whole taco, those extra additives change nothing, because the beef had already emptied the bucket. That is a limitation of a floor-at-zero scale worth naming: it can tell you a taco is heavily processed, but not which of two heavily processed tacos is more so.

Sour Cream and Tomato Cost Less Than You Might Think

Adding "Supreme" to a Crunchy Taco brings reduced-fat sour cream and diced tomatoes, and on Taco Bell's numbers it costs very little: 20 more calories, 10 more milligrams of sodium, half a gram more saturated fat and a gram more protein. The score slips from 71 to 69, which moves it from Good to the top of Fair.

The sour cream's own statement lists modified corn starch, maltodextrin, guar gum, locust bean gum and carrageenan, but just like the Doritos shell, those additions don't register on a marker scale the beef has already maxed out. What does register is the drift in calories and saturated fat. If you like the Supreme build, it helps to know it sits within a couple of points of the plain version, so the choice between them is more about what you enjoy than about the score.

Jack in the Box's Famous Taco Lands Mid-Pack

Jack in the Box's Regular Taco, sold in pairs, scores 68, which puts it right alongside Taco Bell's crunchy lineup. The chain's 2026 nutrition sheet lists it at 81 g, 170 calories, 360 mg of sodium, 3 g of saturated fat, 2 g of fiber and 6 g of protein, and the menu's 2 Tacos order comes to 340 calories.

Its shell has the simplest statement in the field: "Ground Corn, Water, Lime," which is a full 10 shell points. The filling is a different story. Alongside beef, it lists ground dark chicken, textured vegetable protein and defatted soy grits, plus a seasoning with corn maltodextrin, hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat proteins, monosodium glutamate and natural flavors. The taco sauce and American cheese add more markers on top. Protein is the soft spot at 3.5 g per 100 calories, the lowest of any corn-shell taco here, which is what keeps it just behind the Taco Bell trio.

The Nutrient Leader, Held Back by Its Tortilla

If you looked only at the 75 nutrient points, Del Taco's Grilled Chicken Street Taco would sit near the very top. At 110 calories, 0 g of saturated fat, 0 g of sugar, 300 mg of sodium and 9 g of protein, it scores 61.6 of 75 on nutrients, second only to the crunchy Snack Taco.

So why is it seventh rather than contending for first? The tortilla. Del Taco's street chicken taco comes on a flour tortilla whose first ingredient is enriched bleached wheat flour, with interesterified and hydrogenated soybean oil further down, and that costs the full 10 shell points. The marinated chicken's seasoning (modified corn starch, maltodextrin, whey protein concentrate, corn syrup solids, hydrolyzed corn gluten, natural flavors) empties the marker bucket too. The guide lists 0 g of fiber, which is the other gap. It is a good illustration of why this piece shows every component: the total can hide a taco that is excellent on one axis and ordinary on another.

Soft Shell, Small Size, Middle of the Pack

The soft version of Del Taco's Snack Taco shows the shell effect at small scale. It uses the same seasoned beef, lettuce and cheddar as the crunchy Snack Taco at number one, but on a flour tortilla. Sodium jumps from 135 mg to 330 mg, calories rise from 120 to 150, and the shell points drop from 10 to 0. The net result is 59, about 13 points behind its crunchy twin.

There is a small upside: the tortilla brings 1 g of fiber where the crunchy version lists none, and protein stays near full marks at 4.7 g per 100 calories. It remains one of the lower-calorie choices in the whole field, which is worth knowing if calories are the number you track most closely.

Taco Bell's Soft Taco Pays a Sodium Toll

Taco Bell's Soft Taco with beef looks a lot like the Crunchy Taco on paper, and on calories it nearly is: 180 versus 170. The gap is sodium. The flour tortilla pushes it to 500 mg, 190 mg more than the crunchy shell, which costs almost 4 sodium points, and the tortilla's first ingredient (bleached enriched wheat flour) costs the 10 shell points.

On the plus side, it earns full protein marks, with 9 g in 180 calories, and it keeps the same 3 g of fiber as the crunchy version. Its 58 lands it in the middle of the Fair band. The roughly 13-point gap between this and the Crunchy Taco is the single cleanest shell comparison in the ranking, since the filling is the same.

Leaner Filling, Same Tortilla

Swapping beef for Taco Bell's grilled chicken in a Soft Taco trims calories to 160 and saturated fat to 2.5 g, and pushes protein to 12 g, which is 7.5 g per 100 calories and comfortably past full marks. On those measures, chicken is the stronger filling.

Sodium doesn't move much, though. At 510 mg, it is actually 10 mg higher than the beef version, and fiber drops to 1 g. The chicken's own seasoning lists modified potato starch, yeast extract, disodium inosinate and guanylate, maltodextrin, dextrose and natural flavors, so the marker bucket stays empty. The net effect is a score of 57, less than 2 points below the beef version. It is a reminder that "chicken" and "lighter" are not always the same thing when sodium carries the most weight.

Supreme Toppings on a Chicken Soft Taco

The chicken Soft Taco Supreme adds sour cream and tomatoes to the chicken soft taco, and on Taco Bell's guide it lands at 180 calories, 3.5 g of saturated fat, 520 mg of sodium, 2 g of fiber and 12 g of protein. The score is 57, statistically a tie with the plain chicken soft taco just above it (the gap is under a tenth of a point).

What the Supreme build adds in saturated fat, it partly gives back in fiber, which is a gram higher than the plain chicken soft taco. Protein remains strong at 6.7 g per 100 calories. Like every flour-tortilla taco in this ranking, it starts 10 points behind any corn-shell taco before the fillings are even counted, which is why it sits in the Fair band rather than Good.

The Heaviest of Taco Bell's Everyday Soft Tacos

The beef Soft Taco Supreme is the highest-calorie version of Taco Bell's basic soft taco at 200 calories, with 5 g of saturated fat and 520 mg of sodium. Protein holds at 9 g, which works out to 4.5 g per 100 calories and just shy of full marks.

At 55, it sits at the bottom edge of the Fair band. The steps are easy to follow: the flour tortilla costs 10 shell points versus a crunchy shell, the sour cream adds a gram of saturated fat over the plain soft taco, and the extra sodium from the tortilla keeps chipping at the heaviest-weighted component. Compared with its crunchy counterpart, the Crunchy Taco Supreme, it scores about 14 points lower on nearly the same set of fillings.

Del Taco's Namesake and the Saturated Fat Problem

The Del Taco is the chain's signature, a bigger crunchy taco with more seasoned beef, more cheddar, lettuce and tomatoes, and it scores 54, which is squarely in the Weak band despite a corn shell that earns full shell points. The reason is concentrated in one line of the Del Taco nutritional list: 11 g of saturated fat.

That is 55% of the Daily Value in a single taco and past the formula's 10 g zero point, so the saturated fat component scores nothing. It also carries 300 calories and 520 mg of sodium. The generous filling has a real upside, too: 16 g of protein is more than any Taco Bell taco in this ranking, and it earns full protein marks. The takeaway here is that "bigger" moved almost every number, and saturated fat moved the most.

A Chicken Taco That Scores Like a Beef Taco

Del Taco's Grilled Chicken Taco puts marinated chicken, secret sauce, lettuce and cheddar in a flour tortilla. It lands at 210 calories, 3 g of saturated fat, 510 mg of sodium, 1 g of fiber and 11 g of protein, for a score of 54, essentially level with The Del Taco just above it.

It gets there differently. Saturated fat is moderate, and protein earns full marks, but the flour tortilla costs 10 shell points and fiber is thin at under half a gram per 100 calories. The secret sauce is a soybean-oil and egg-yolk sauce with modified food starch and propylene glycol alginate, which adds calories without adding protein or fiber. Compared with the chain's own Grilled Chicken Street Taco at number seven, which skips the cheese and creamy sauce, this build has almost twice the calories and 210 mg more sodium.

The Fiber Champion of the Field

Taco Bell's Black Bean Chalupa Supreme has one standout number: 7 g of fiber. That is more than double any other taco in this ranking, and at just over 2 g per 100 calories, it earns the most fiber points of the 20.

The rest of the picture is mixed. At 340 calories, it is one of the heavier tacos here, and the chalupa shell is a fried flatbread whose statement begins with enriched wheat flour and includes corn syrup solids, mono- and diglycerides and soy protein isolate, so it earns no shell points. Protein comes in at 10 g, which is under 3 g per 100 calories. Sodium is lower than the beef chalupa at 450 mg. The final 53 puts it in the Weak band, but if fiber is your priority, this is the taco that delivers the most of it in a single order.

A Vegetarian Taco That Doesn't Score as Light as It Sounds

The Spicy Potato Soft Taco is Taco Bell's meatless value taco, and it's a good example of how the lighter-sounding option isn't always the better number. It lands at 50, the bottom of the Weak band.

The biggest issue is protein. With 5 g in 240 calories, it delivers about 2 g per 100 calories, the lowest in the field. Calories are higher than every Taco Bell beef soft taco, and sodium is 470 mg. The potato bites themselves are fried and seasoned, with dextrin, natural flavor, modified food starch, guar gum and dextrose on their statement, and the chipotle sauce adds xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate and maltodextrin. None of that makes it a poor choice for someone who prefers a vegetarian taco, but the score shows that "potato" and "vegetarian" say more about the filling than about the nutrition line.

The same pattern shows up in the grocery aisle, where our comparison of plant-based patties and beef found the labels don't always split the way you might expect.

Plant-Based Patties vs. Beef: Cost, Protein and Sodium Per Patty

Breaded Chicken Brings the Sodium

Del Taco's Chipotle Crispy Chicken Taco puts a breaded chicken strip, chipotle sauce, lettuce and cheddar in a flour tortilla, and it scores 47. The main reason is sodium: 690 mg, among the three highest in the ranking, which leaves only about 9 of 20 sodium points.

The breading adds refined flour, modified food starch and dextrose to the chicken, and the chipotle sauce is an oil-based dressing that lists xanthan gum, disodium inosinate and guanylate, maltodextrin, sorbitol and hydrolyzed wheat and soy protein. At 240 calories, it also gets less protein per calorie than any grilled chicken option in the field. A useful comparison sits a few spots up: Del Taco's own Grilled Chicken Street Taco has less than half the calories and 390 mg less sodium.

The Highest-Calorie Taco in the Ranking

Taco Bell's Chalupa Supreme with beef is the heaviest taco in this field at 350 calories, and it carries 570 mg of sodium and 5 g of saturated fat along with it. The final score is 47, a hair behind Del Taco's Chipotle Crispy Chicken Taco.

The chalupa shell is the main driver. It is a fried flatbread built on enriched wheat flour, so it earns no shell points, and it adds a large share of the calories without adding much protein: 12 g in 350 calories works out to 3.4 g per 100 calories. It does bring 4 g of fiber, which is solid. Compared with the black bean version at number 15, the beef chalupa gives up 3 g of fiber and adds 120 mg of sodium and 1.5 g of saturated fat, and those three lines account for the roughly 6.6-point gap between them.

The Saltiest Taco in the Field

Del Taco's Ranch Crispy Chicken Taco has the highest sodium of all 20 tacos: 700 mg, about 30% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value in one taco. That alone holds it to just under 9 of 20 sodium points.

It shares a build with the Chipotle version at number 17 (breaded chicken, lettuce, cheddar and flour tortilla) and swaps in a creamy ranch made with soybean oil, buttermilk, maltodextrin, guar gum, xanthan gum and yeast extract. The ranch version also carries half a gram more saturated fat, which accounts for most of the small gap between the two scores. Protein is 9 g in 240 calories. At 46, it lands near the bottom of the Weak band, and the two crispy chicken tacos together show how breading and creamy sauces can push a chicken taco well below a beef one.

Last Place Goes to Del Taco's Signature Taco in a Soft Shell

The lowest score in this ranking belongs to the soft version of The Del Taco, at 42. The fillings are the same generous build as the crunchy version at number 13, but the flour tortilla stacks several costs on top of each other: the shell points drop to 0, sodium rises to 610 mg, and fiber drops to 1 g.

The saturated fat is the same issue as the crunchy version, with 10 g on the guide, which still hits the zero point for that component. Put together, that's 50% of the saturated fat Daily Value and more than a quarter of the sodium Daily Value in one taco. The protein is excellent at 17 g, the highest in the field, and it's a reminder that no single number tells the whole story. But on the formula's balance of sodium, saturated fat, calories and shell, this taco collects the fewest points of the 20.

Step back from the individual scorecards and three patterns explain most of the ranking.

The shell is the single biggest decision. At both Taco Bell and Del Taco, the same filling scores 12 to 15 points lower in a flour tortilla than in a crunchy corn shell. Most of that is the 10 shell points, and the rest is largely sodium: across the four matched pairs here, the flour version carries 90 to 200 mg more. The chalupa shell follows the same pattern, adding calories along with refined flour.

Size and sauce move the nutrient points. The two highest nutrient scores in the field belong to two of the lightest tacos, Del Taco's crunchy Snack Taco and its Grilled Chicken Street Taco, both at 120 calories or less. At the other end, The Del Taco's generous build pushes saturated fat to 10 or 11 g, and the breaded crispy chicken tacos with creamy sauces carry the highest sodium in the field. "Chicken" on its own isn't a reliable shortcut; the grilled street version and the crispy ranch version sit roughly 16 points apart.

Nobody escapes the ingredient floor. Every one of the 20 tacos scores 0 of 15 on ultra-processing markers, and the reason is consistent: each chain's seasoned beef, marinated chicken and steak carries four or more markers on its own, before any sauce or cheese is counted. That's a limit of the formula worth knowing, since a floor at zero can't separate a taco with five markers from one with fifteen. It's also a finding in its own right about how fast-food proteins are made.

Sodium carries the most weight in the formula for a reason. In an analysis of national survey data, burritos and tacos were the fifth-largest food-category source of sodium in the American diet, supplying 4.3% of the total.

For context, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day and an ideal limit of 1,500 mg for most adults. Three tacos from the middle of this list can reach a third or more of that larger figure before a side or a drink.

If you'd like to see how similar trade-offs play out beyond tacos, our chain-by-chain guide to menu swaps looks at the same kinds of choices across other fast-food restaurants.

Fast Food Menu Swaps: Chain-By-Chain Choices That Make A Real Difference