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Apocalypse cow.

Taco Bell is facing major shortages of some of its hottest menu items after it recalled a whopping 2.3 million pounds of seasoned beef due to metal-contamination concerns.

The California-based Tex-Mex merchant had originally instructed a limited number of restaurants to stop serving the tasty taco filling as it didn’t adhere to quality standards, Fox News reported. As it turns out, the “lack of quality standards” was actually a customer reporting a shaving of metal in their beef.

So the chain decided to issue a nearly nationwide meat moratorium.

Taco Bell’s beef recall affects “21 states across the eastern Midwest, northern Southeast and Northeast,” according to a press release the company issued Monday. It didn’t specify the number of stores impacted by the measure.

“Nothing is more important than our customers’ safety, and nothing means more to us than their trust,” Julie Masino, president of Taco Bell’s North American division, said in the statement. “As soon as we received the first consumer complaint, we immediately acted to remove the product from the affected restaurants and proactively worked with the supplier to inform the USDA of our steps to protect our guests.”

The alleged metal-tainted meat was produced by Kenosha Beef between Sept. 20 and Oct. 4, and then transported to five distribution centers (in Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Virginia), USA Today reported. It was then distributed to Taco Bell branches across the country.

The USDA has announced that, as of yet, “there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.” So scrapping beef from all the shelves may have been a bit overzealous.

In doing so, Taco Bell has excised a decent chunk of its menu. Seasoned beef features in some of the fast-food chain’s most popular items, including the Chalupa Supreme, quesadillas, tacos and Cheesy Gorditas.

Suffice to say, the Taco Bell twitterati is none too pleased with the shortage, firing off angry responses such as “1220 on a Saturday and taco Bell doesn’t have beef” and “we rarely get fast food — decided today’s ‘The Day’ . . . and @tacobell has a beef shortage? What the heck??!?”

One protester snarked: “So Garrett, Ernie, and I pull up to Taco Bell and the guy tells us that they are all out of beef and we are like umm ok and then he proceeds to say ‘but besides that we are tacotastic!,’ wow what a man.”

It’s unknown when seasoned beef will appear on the menu again but Taco Bell assured customers in a statement to Fox News that “they are working diligently to replenish the supply in those restaurants.” The taco chain also encouraged fans to try “other delicious proteins like shredded chicken or steak in the meantime.”

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