Consumer Confidence In Beef
Consumer confidence in a product always helps marketing of that product. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back after this quick break with some beef confidence news.Successful marketing of any product depends in a large part on consumer confidence - beef is no exception. An article in Western Farmer-Stockman magazine by Willie Vogt shows people who purchase beef have more confidence in it than they did ten years ago. With all the beef bashing by radial vegetarians, environmentalists and animal rights people you might think the reverse would be true. Beef consumers have decided beef is safe mainly through the efforts of the beef industry itself. All segments, producers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, food service operators and researchers joined together in 1997 to form the Beef Industry Food Safety Council. This group agreed not to use safety as a competitive marketing tool, but rather, share all knowledge about safety processes and innovations. Beef checkoff funds also helped with consumer research while informing beef customers about new safety procedures and preparation guidelines. Since 1998 assurance in the safety of steaks and roasts has risen ten points. The most surprising data shows consumers confidence in fresh ground beef has moved up 24 percentage points from a 60 percent safety rating to 84 percent. This is good news considering the recalls of many food groups that have occurred lately. Beef consumer confidence has seen dips but there is a positive upward direction and with more research and consumers education I have to think this trend will continue. I'm Jeff Keane.
Western Farmer-Stockman April 2009
