Super Bowl Party Food -- A Whole Lot of Chicken Wings Being Eaten

Super Bowl Party Food -- A Whole lot of Chicken Wings Being Eaten

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Chicken wings have become a staple food of Super Bowl parties in the U.S., and demand for them on menus is now at an all-time high leading up to the second biggest eating day of the year after Thanksgiving – Super Bowl Sunday.
Super Bowl weekend is unquestionably the biggest time of the year for wings.  According to the National Chicken Council’s 2013 Wing Report, more than 1.23 billion wing portions will be consumed during Super Bowl weekend in 2013, as fans watch the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens battle for the Lombardi Trophy.
To put that into perspective, if 1.23 billion wing segments were laid end to end, they would stretch from Candlestick Park in San Francisco to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore… 27 times.
Field Reporter Greg Martin has more wing-onomics to share.
“The wing is usually split into two parts – or portions or segments – known as the “drumette” and the mid-section or “flat” and sold to restaurants or retail grocery outlets.
A chicken has two wings, and chicken companies are not able to produce wings without the rest of the chicken. Therefore, the supply of wings is limited by the total number of chickens produced. When the demand for wings is stronger than the demand for other chicken parts, the price of wings will go up, as it has this past year.
The wholesale price of wings will be the most expensive ever during Super Bowl XLVII as demand rises and the supply has shrunk. Wings are also currently the highest priced part of the chicken.”
Thanks, Greg.