Demographics and beef preferences affect consumer motivation for purchasing fresh beef steaks and roasts.

Surveys completed by 1370 consumers determined the motivational factors affecting consumer purchasing decisions for fresh beef steaks and roasts in three regions in the United States. Females placed greater importance on tenderness, ease of preparation, and nutritional value of steaks and roasts when compared to males. Age influenced tenderness, product consistency, and nutritional value of steaks, but influenced flavor, product consistency, and nutritional value of roasts. Consumers felt juiciness, nutritional value, and natural products were less important in determining their purchasing choices of steaks and roasts as their level of education increased. The preferred degree of doneness of steaks influenced the value placed on six of the nine purchasing motivators. Beef preferences and demographics influenced consumer purchasing decisions for fresh beef steaks and roasts. Results from this study can be used to help identify factors to positively influence purchasing decisions within targeted market segments.

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.

Impact of transportation of feedlot cattle to the harvest facility on the prevalence of Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, and total aerobic microorganisms on hides.

Prevalences of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and total aerobic microorganisms were determined on the hides of beef feedlot cattle before and after transport from the feedyard to the harvest facility in clean and dirty trailers. Swab samples were taken from the midline and withers of 40 animals on each of 8 days before and after shipping. After samples were collected, animals were loaded in groups of 10 on upper and lower levels of clean and dirty trailers. Animals were unloaded at the harvest facility and kept in treatment groups for sample collection after exsanguination. Salmonella was found more often on hide swabs collected from the midline than on than samples collected from the withers from animals transported in both clean and dirty trailers. Salmonella was found on significantly more hide swabs collected at harvest from both sampling locations than on those collected at the feedyard, with no differences attributed to the type of trailer. At the feedyard, clean trucks had a lower percentage of Salmonella-positive samples than did dirty trucks before animals were loaded. However, after transport, both clean and dirty trucks had a similar prevalence of Salmonella. There were no differences in Salmonella prevalence on hides collected from animals transported on the top and bottom levels of clean and dirty trucks. E. coli O157:H7 was detected on less than 2% of the samples; therefore, no practical conclusions about prevalence could be drawn. Hides sampled at harvest had higher concentrations of aerobic microorganisms than did hides sampled at the feedyard, and concentrations were higher on the midline than on the withers. Although the prevalences of Salmonella and total aerobic microorganisms increased on hides after transport from the feedyardto the plant, this increase was not related to the cleanliness of the trailers or the location of the cattle in the trailers.