National Meat Case Study 2004: Product labeling information, branding, and packaging trends.

Fresh meat retail cases in 104 supermarkets across 5 regions of the United States were audited for the use of packaging types and materials, branding, and cooking/nutritional information. Frequency means were separated for species of beef, ground beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, and veal. Traditional polyvinyl chloride overwrap was used on 47.0% of packages in the fresh meat case nationwide and was the most frequent packaging type for beef, ground beef, pork, lamb, and veal. The use of modified atmosphere packaging was greatest (P < 0.001) in ground beef (33.2%) and turkey (45.1%) products. The 3 most common tray colors in the fresh meat retail case on a national level were white (39.6%), yellow (22.4%), and black (11.5%). Foam trays were used in 72.6% of all packages in the retail meat case. In 2004, 60.2% of all packages were case-ready. Chicken (94.8%) and turkey (95.6%) products utilized case-ready packaging systems more (P < 0.001) than any other species. On a national level, 50.1% of all products carried a national brand, 12.2% carried a store brand, and the remaining 37.7% of products in the fresh meat case in 2004 were not branded. Chicken was most (P < 0.001) likely to carry a natural brand label. Labels with cooking instructions were found most (P < 0.001) on pork (37.3%) and turkey products (48.1%). Chicken (20.4%) and turkey products (20.7%) were most (P < 0.001) likely to have the cooking instructions printed on the packaging material compared with all other species. Labels with nutritional information were most (P < 0.001) likely to be found on turkey products (55.7%) in the fresh meat case compared with any other species. On the national level, 6.1% of all packages reported in the fresh meat case in 2004 were value-added.

National Meat Case Study 2004: Fresh product types and allocation of retail space.

Fresh meat retail cases in 104 supermarkets across 5 regions of the United States were audited for product space allocation, percentage of space allocated to each fresh meat category and frequency of species among all stock keeping units (n = 14,863). The United States was divided into Mountain/Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and West Coast regions. Fresh meat categories for self-service cases included beef muscle cuts, ground beef, pork, veal, lamb, chicken, turkey, fresh sausage, value-added, heat and serve, ham-bone-in, ham-boneless, ham steak, other processed meats, seafood, and nonmeat items. Fresh meat categories for the full-service case included seafood, beef, pork, chicken, and other. Whole muscle beef, pork, and chicken products were available in all stores. Ground beef products and turkey were reported in almost all stores, 94.5 to 100%, respectively. The majority of the self-service meat case was dedicated to beef in all regions except for the Northeast, where chicken occupied the majority of the self-service case. Linear meters of self-service fresh meat case were greatest in the Northeast region, which was similar to Mountain and Midwest regions, but different (P = 0.003) than the Southeast and West Coast regions. However, the West Coast region best utilized the retail meat case by providing consumers with the greatest number of offerings per linear meter. The percentage of stores audited with a full-service meat case was 37.5%, and the percentage with a full-service seafood case was 60.6%. The full-service meat case was the smallest (number of linear meters, P = 0.039) in the Southeast and largest (number of linear meters, P = 0.039) in the Midwest.

Implication of cytochrome P-450 1A isoforms and the AH receptor in the genotoxicity of coal-tar fume condensate and bitumen fume condensates.

During the hot application of bitumen- or coal-tar-containing materials, fumes are emitted that contain polycyclic aromatic compounds. Although workers' exposure to these fumes is low, it might lead to health problems. No study has reported the metabolic pathways involved in the genotoxicity of coal tar or bitumen fume condensates (CTFC, BFCs). We have therefore studied the DNA adducts formed by incubation of CTFC or BFCs with liver microsomes from several type of mice and with yeast microsomes expressing individual human CYP enzymes. Our results demonstrates that: (1) the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) plays an important role in the biotransformation of BFCs and to a lesser extent of CTFC; (2) for CTFC, both cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A isoforms are involved in the formation of genotoxic compounds, and the reactive metabolites formed via CYP 1A1, are substrates for epoxide hydrolase (mEH); (3) for BFCs, the genotoxicity is partially dependent upon CYP 1A1 and the reactive metabolites are not substrates for mEH; (4) CYP 1A isoforms are not exclusively responsible for the genotoxicity of the CTFC and BFCs as other CYPs and also enzymes of the [AH] gene battery, may play an important role.