11 Surprising Facts About Arby’s Roast Beef

Arby’s has been offering classic roast beef sandwiches for 60 years. Founded in Ohio in 1964, today Arby’s has 3,600 restaurants located around the world. If you’re hankering for the chain’s distinct flavor of roast beef on a sesame seed bun and slathered in a signature sauce, you can find an Arby’s in every state except Rhode Island and Vermont. 

Arby’s may not be able to compete with fast food giants McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A in terms of revenue, but it’s still an iconic and well-known brand. After all, a brand doesn’t stick around for 60 years without its fans. And if you’ve ever had an Arby’s roast beef sandwich, you can probably recall the unmistakable flavor of the beef. Back in the ’60s, this sandwich was an innovative product for Arby’s at a time when other fast food restaurants sold only burgers and fries. But that doesn’t mean this signature meat hasn’t had its share of ups and downs. Read on for some fascinating facts about Arby’s roast beef.

Arby’s has been dealing with an unappetizing rumor since the late 1990s. And that is its meat is not genuine beef and is made from a gel or reconstituted powder. According to Snopes, the legend is that Arby’s roast beef arrives at the store as a liquid gel and is shaped into the form of meat before it’s roasted, cooked, sliced, and served to guests. Snopes reached out to Arby’s and received a response from a quality assurance spokesperson who said, “Arby’s Roast Beef consists entirely of Beef and a Self-Basting solution, which contains just enough water to keep the product juicy throughout our restaurants’ 3-hour roasting process and during slicing.” 

Having debunked the urban legend, Snopes further noted that the pre-packaged beef arrives at restaurant locations packed in a “gelatinous broth.” Therefore, this rumor may have begun from someone seeing the bag of raw beef arriving at stores encased in the gel-like marinade and assuming the meat was fake. Like many urban legends, this one stuck around and keeps popping back up on social media from time to time.

The process of making the roast beef was documented by Business Insider in a “Behind the Scenes” with Arby’s back in 2015. The roast beef arrives at the stores frozen and in a roasting bag containing the beef, the roasting liquid, and all of the seasonings. The entire bag gets placed in the oven and is slow-cooked at a low temperature for around four hours. Once the meat is done, the employees thinly slice it to order. 

An employee on Reddit described the process, saying, “It’s just raw beef in the shape of a brick that is in a bag. Cooked for 4 hours at 275 degrees and then sliced.” Another employee on Reddit confirmed, “Arby’s roast beef comes frozen in a cube in a bag, the employee takes it out of the freezer, puts it in the fridge for a day, and then in the oven w/a temp probe.”

Regardless of the time of year or location, the taste and texture of your Arby’s roast beef sandwich shouldn’t differ very much. That’s because Arby’s preparation method for its beef is the same for every store. As you now know, it’s marinated in a bag and shipped, then slow-roasted and sliced, so you should get the same-tasting roast beef sandwich no matter where you are in the world. 

If you wanted to make the same sandwich at home, you would likely use roast beef cuts such as eye of round, bottom round, or chuck. But because the chain doesn’t reveal the details on which cuts of beef it uses, it would be hard to make a similar-tasting sandwich. 

Additionally, Arby’s beef is made with water, salt, and sodium phosphate. The latter is used to change the texture of food, extend its shelf life, and act as an emulsifier, keeping the oil and water from separating. Although the FDA labels food-grade sodium phosphate safe for consumption, if you are trying to replicate Arby’s roast beef sandwich at home, you typically wouldn’t use the substance. To get the same taste, it’s best to visit your local restaurant.

The first Arby’s restaurant opened in Boardman, Ohio, in 1964. Arby’s has an extensive menu today, but in the beginning, there were only roast beef sandwiches and drinks. On the very first menu, roast beef sandwiches cost 69 cents. The menu described them as “served hot and juicy” and “barbeque roasted to perfection on a sesame toasted bun.” As for drinks, Arby’s offered soda, lemonade, coffee, or tea for 10 to 15 cents. Finally, for 28 cents you could buy an Arby’s shake which came in chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors. Or you could try Arby’s own invention, the jamocha, which was a coffee and chocolate milkshake.

The original simple menu focused only on the slow-roasted beef and didn’t even serve french fries. At some point, Arby’s began serving potato cakes, which took the place of fries as the side dish. It wasn’t until 1988 that curly fries showed up on the menu. Today, you can get curly fries or crinkle fries only.

If finding a severed body part inside of your fast food meal is something you don’t want to read about, perhaps skip this next section. In 2012, a 14-year-old boy from Michigan did just that. He bit into his Arby’s roast beef sandwich and felt something unusually chewy. On further inspection, he discovered he had bit into a piece of someone’s finger. He told the Jackson City Patriot, “I was about to puke… It was just nasty.”

The Jackson City Health Department told the news organization that a woman had severed her finger at her workstation while using the meat slicer. She had rushed to the back room to treat her injury without telling other employees what had happened. The other employees continued to fill orders until they learned what had happened and shut down food production to clean the area.

If you say Arby’s quickly, it sounds like “R.B.,” the initials for roast beef. It’s no wonder that many people assume Arby’s is named after its famous roast beef sandwiches. However, that’s not the case. While Arby’s does come from the initials R.B., they are for the founders of the restaurants, the Raffel Brothers. 

When Leroy and Forrest Raffel founded Arby’s, they wanted to create a fast-food restaurant that was different from the other hamburger joints of the day. The brothers chose to offer a higher quality product, slow-roasted beef sandwiches. Arby’s was pricey for the times. A 69-cent roast beef sandwich was quite a bit more than a 15-cent McDonald’s hamburger. In fact, you could get an entire meal at McDonalds including a hamburger, fries, and a soft drink for about half the price of one roast beef sandwich at Arby’s.

According to the Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), Arby’s received an “F” grade in 2024 for “not establishing policies to restrict antibiotic use in their meat supply chains.” Arby’s isn’t the only quick-service restaurant to receive a failing grade for antibiotic use in its meat supply. Others on the list include Dairy Queen, Sonic, Olive Garden, and Little Caesars. The only “A’s” from this report were given to Chipotle and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Antibiotic overuse can happen when people are prescribed unneeded antibiotics, such as when they have a virus that isn’t treatable via this method. But it can also come from our food supply. While it’s been a common practice to give cattle antibiotics to prevent disease, the overuse of antibiotics may cause the creation of superbugs (bacteria resistant to antibiotics). When superbugs pass to humans, antibiotics are no longer effective at treating them. For example, MRSA is an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can be life-threatening but is very difficult to treat with medicine.

While some restaurants are serving up plant-based meats, like Burger King’s Impossible Whopper or Buona Beef’s plant-based meatless Italian Beef Sandwich, don’t expect the same from Arby’s. On the contrary, in 2019 as a marketing ploy, Arby’s released a meat-based carrot, the “marrot.” The marrot looked and reportedly tasted like a carrot, but was made from meat. While you can’t get a marrot on the menu today, it made a big stir online when it debuted. In a 2019 statement, Arby’s said, “The chances we will bring plant-based menu items to our restaurants, now or in the future, are absolutely impossible.”

Although that is a strong stance, we know things can change at any time, and perhaps if the meatless trend stays strong, Arby’s may change its tune. If you’re looking for vegan options at Arby’s, you can find them in the sides and drinks. The french fries, dessert turnovers, and Arby’s sauce are all vegan.

You don’t have to stick to the menu when you order at Arby’s. According to the official website, “enjoying your roast beef sandwich just the way you like it is easy at Arby’s. You can modify your order with a choice of sauces and additional fixings.” Because Arby’s lets customers easily modify their orders, an extensive secret menu has cropped up. One of the best-known menu hacks is the Meat Mountain. The Meat Mountain is just what it sounds like: a mountain of meat piled high in between a bun. It started as a marketing stunt to advertise that Arby’s sells more than beef. But people actually ordered it, and today, you can ask for a meat mountain and the staff will probably know what you mean.

If you don’t want to eat a mountain of meat, there are plenty of other modifications you can make to the Arby’s menu. For example, you can easily get a roast beef and Swiss sandwich with a few substitutions. Though the classic roast beef comes with cheddar, ask for the sandwich to be topped with Swiss cheese instead and substitute the honey wheat bread for the standard roll. Then add any toppings you like, such as mayo, lettuce, onion, and tomato.

It was a running joke for Jon Stewart to poke fun at Arby’s on “The Daily Show” by making such comments about the restaurant as “because your hunger is stronger than your memory” or “the meal that’s a dare for your colon.” However, Arby’s took this all in stride. Rather than get insulted, the brand played the game. When Stewart left “The Daily Show” in 2016, Arby’s ran a special commercial highlighting his insults over the years, all to the tune of The Golden Girls themes song, “Thank You for Being a Friend.” To conclude the ad, Arby’s said, “Not sure why, but we’ll miss you.”

The joke continued when Stewart and TV host Jimmy Kimmel visited Arby’s in a bit for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Stewart referred to Arby’s as the “diarrhea factory.” Arby’s responded on social media with an image of an Arby’s sign that read, “Jon and Jimmy Were Here.” Not to be outdone, Stewart retweeted Arby’s image with the words, “Mount Poopmore.” Rather than fight back, Arby’s had a sense of humor, keeping the exchange positive, and giving themselves publicity.

If you head to Arby’s and are planning on ordering one of the lower-calorie options, you might want to avoid the chicken. The three highest-calorie menu items are the Crispy Chicken Club Wrap (880 calories), the Turkey, Ranch & Bacon Sandwich (800 calories), and the Sausage Gravy Biscuit-Double (960 calories). Compare that to the Classic Roast Beef sandwich without cheese at 360 calories. Add a slice of cheddar cheese to your roast beef and you’re looking at 450 calories, which is still 430 calories less than the Crispy Chicken Club Wrap. And you could eat two of the Classic Beef and Cheddars and still have a lower calorie intake than one Sausage Gravy Biscuit-Double.

According to VeryWellFit, the classic roast beef sandwich is the best choice when trying to stay healthy at Arby’s. Add a side salad and a healthy drink, and you’ve got a “smart meal choice.” However, keep in mind that the sandwich is high in sodium, with 970 mg.