Changes in the Meat Case

Within fresh meat, beef, pork and chicken take up 94 percent of the linear feet in the meat case. Since 2004, beef's share of that space has held steady at 42 percent although ground beef is gaining within that category. Chicken has gained a point to 27 percent and pork lost a point to 20 percent. Turkey has 6 percent of the space while lamb has 3 percent and veal 2 percent.

The study found that store brands have tripled in the meat case since 2004, on-package nutrition and country of origin labeling are increasing and products with a "natural" claim on the label increased 10 percent since 2004 and now appear on 32 percent of meat labels. Organic labels increased and now appear on 0.9 percent of all packages, 2 percent of all chicken is labeled organic and 1.1 percent of ground beef. There is also a noticeable increase in the number of bilingual labels. Beef and chicken saw an increase in "value" or "family packs."

Reprinted in part from Brownfield Ag News

<< Back