Meat a Major Draw
by Bryan Salvage, Editor
Fruit and vegetable products seemed to dominate the food and beverage exhibits at two major food industry conventions held last May at Chicago's McCormick Place. But it was the beer and meat (particularly pizza, hot dogs and sausage) exhibits that generated the longest lines of people eager for free samples.
This supports what some product-tracking gurus have been saying lately about new food product trends: "Indulgence and pleasure" have replaced "health and nutrition" in some food categories. But as far as the meat category goes, many exhibits touted convenient, healthier-alternative products.
Retail meats flourish
The Supermarket Industry Convention and Educational Exposition (sponsored by Food Marketing Institute) featured a wide range of retail meat exhibits, including variations of pizza; hot dogs and other sausage products; meat snacks; beef, pork, lamb and veal lunch meat and entrees; irradiated poultry-and even wild game, such as bison products. Exotic products, such as Gourmet Marinated Alligator Meat and Smoked Alligator Sausage, attracted both the hungry and curious.
Although traditional and exotic meat products will continue to be in demand, creating healthier alternative meat products is a high priority for most meat companies.
"There's a continuing consumer demand for healthier, lower-fat products," Ted Burt, director of corporate accounts, Kraft USA/Kraft General Foods, told MM&T during the FMI convention. "We have a full array of lower-fat products [Oscar Mayer and Louis Rich brands]. Convenience and healthier, better-for-you are themes that our marketing group marches toward."
Burt added: "We'll see a continued move toward healthier, better-tasting, convenient lunch meat products. The latest news is our Carving Board line under the Louis Rich brand. This is a full line of whole-muscle, red meat and poultry products carved right from the turkey breast or ham. It rolled out nationally the first quarter of this year."
Armour Swift-Eckrich had a number of interesting products on display. In honor of the Eckrich label's 100th anniversary, the company showcased its new Eckrich 1894 Old World Style meats. This line of seven old-world classics includes kielbasa, smoked sausage, franks and ham.
"The 1894 line consists of very traditional products featuring extra-hearty flavor," said Randy Irion, vice president of marketing for Armour Swift-Eckrich.
In 1991, ground beef was the first meat product introduced under the Healthy Choice label. One of the newest additions to the Healthy Choice line is Honey Ham. One 3-ounce serving contains less than 600 mg of sodium, which is significantly less than the average 3 ounce serving of smoked ham (it typically ranges from 900 to more than 1,100 mg of sodium). This nugget ham averages about 2 pounds in weight.
Armour's new Homestyle Italian Meat Balls and its new, improved version of Healthy Choice smoked sausage were also displayed.
"We came up with a new sausage formulation that's still 97 percent fat-free, low in sodium, but significantly improved in taste," said Irion. "We just introduced this new version several weeks before the FMI show."
Irion told MM&T: "As you walk around the FMI show floor, you'll see conversions of nutrition labeling. Nutrition labels will help people be more aware of what the protein is, and meat is an excellent source of nutrition and protein."
Hormel Foods Corp. exhibited key company brands during the FMI show.
"Light & Lean 97 meat products continue to show excellent growth," said Jerry Whithaus, Hormel's director of marketing services. "We're extremely excited about our multi-item line of Consumer Ready [case-ready] fresh pork. These products remove the labor intensity and costs from the retailer. And the Light & Lean 97 meat products line also provides exciting growth opportunities.
"Companies that can stay in the forefront of consumer needs and issues, be it low-fat, lean products that deliver good taste and convenience or technologies such as irradiation, will be an industry leader," he added. "I believe we're going to remain one of the leaders-if not the leader in the meat business."
Foodservice extravaganza!
Ethnic, upscale, gourmet and innovative are four words that describe many foodservice meat products exhibited during the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.
Meat products for all occasions were on display, including Posada Flap Wraps (light, fluffy pancakes wrapped around a sausage filling); Hormel's Breakfast Combos (bars or links that use American cheese, eggs combined with Hormel ham and sausage); and Poco Pasada' exhibited mini-Mexican appetizers, including burritos, chimichangas, tacquitos and tacos.
And for lunch, how about a Deli Wrap tortilla sandwich? Specially packaged for a 21-day shelf life, it comes in three varieties including Roast Beef, Cheddar and Horseradish.
Clive, Iowa-based Iowa Quality Meats touted its Rack of Pork Loin and Peppered Bacon Grill Fillets as center-of-the-plate options for lunch or dinner menus. And Campbell's Mexican Kitchen featured its Fiesta Beef Tamale Pie and Lasagna Mexicana with Meat
Joe Hunt, group product manager of beef products and foodservice marketing for Tyson Foods' beef and pork division, told MM&T his company has introduced some very innovative pork products, including Flavor Ready Pork, Honey Stung Pork Chops and Stuffed Tenderloins.
"Our new product innovation emphasis has been focused toward the pork side of the business because we're vertically integrated in that protein segment," said Hunt. "On the beef side, we're not that vertically integrated. The emphasis on beef is to refine our product line and develop our customer base for existing products which are fairly standard to the industry, such as breaded fried steaks and portion-control steaks.
"We are now in the initial stages of developing some very innovative new types of beef products," he added. "We're optimistic as to the growth potential of beef and pork. Chicken protein continues to enjoy huge popularity partly because of consumer concerns about healthy eating. We see the pendulum swinging back toward eating a variety of foods. For that reason, Tyson is perfectly positioned because we offer a complete range of protein-poultry, beef, pork and seafood."
Australian competition
As highlighted during both shows, domestic competition has never been hotter. American packers and processors should also be concerned about foreign competition. For example, the Australian Meat & Livestock Corp. announced during the NRA show that an independent research firm it hired found no discernible difference in taste or mouthfeel among patties mixed with frozen Australian beef vs. patties made with 100 percent fresh U.S. beef. This was determined through blind taste tests of 175 consumers.
Thirty-five professional chefs and buyers also participated in a similar taste test and the group "overwhelmingly" preferred the taste of patties made with 50 percent frozen Australian beef for the lean portion-especially in charbroiled preparation, AMLSC reports.
When asked why the test was conducted, Frances Cassidy, CEO for AMLSC's Region of the Americas, New York, said: "We see market opportunities for Australian beef coming into the United States expanding significantly in 1995. This year, we entered into a voluntary restraint agreement with the United States. We are confident that the GATT (General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs) round will bring more opportunity for us to export meat to the United States.
"We want to go to restaurant chains with the results of this test since imports won't be restricted next year," she added. "And next year, we see imported meat returning to the normal pricing levels it was about three years ago."
Allan Bloxom, business development manager for AMLSC's Region of the Americas, adds: "We will be in a stronger position [in 1995] to supply frozen and chilled primal cuts to the American market for further processing."
AMLSC plans to add another person to its New York staff next year to help build business with American processors and fast-food restaurant chain buyers. The group is interested in working jointly with American restaurant chains to do focus group projects on incorporating Australian beef into their formulations.
In order to complement AMLSC's Fresh Australian Range Lamb program, a number of Australian chilled lamb foodservice products (including boneless lamb rib eyes, diced lamb and boneless lamb tenderloins-all in vacuum packaging) was on display at the NRA show.
And a "How to Cook Lamb Guide" is currently being developed for supermarkets to educate consumers on lamb preparation at home.