Meat case study reveals trends

Feb 25, 2008 4:58 PM

The 2007 National Meat Case Study, funded by the Beef Checkoff, Sealed Air's Cryovac Food Packaging and the National Pork Board, examined trends and opportunities in retail meat merchandising. Results of the study, which involved 121 retail stores in 48 metropolitan markets in 34 states, show that fresh meat’s share of the case has increased and availability of branded meat products continues to grow. Beef and ground beef's shares of self-serve meat case linear feet remained steady at 19 percent and 8 percent, respectively, from 2004 to 2007. Total fresh beef packages accounted for 27 percent of linear feet in the self-serve meat case. Specific findings include:

• Fresh meat owned 66% of the share of self-serve meat case linear feet in 2007, up from 63% in 2004.
• The percentage of Ground Beef packages with natural claims on the package increased 257% (from 7% to 25%) from 2004 to 2007.
• Over one quarter of all the heat and serve packages in the case are beef.
• The percentage of beef packages that were value-added (flavor or ingredient added) packages increased from 4% in 2004 to 7% in 2007.
• The percentage of whole muscle beef packages with on-pack nutrition labels increased 50% (from 16% to 24%) from 2004 to 2007.

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