09/28/05 New beef products

New Beef Products There are some new beef snack products on the market. I'll Jeff Keane; I'll tell you about them in one minute. Beef jerky captures about 90% of the meat-snack market yearly with sales of 2.7 billion dollars. Two new products from Poore Brothers Inc., using the T.G.I. Friday's brand have entered the beef jerky category. They are dried bite-size, seasoned steak snacks in original and mesquite smoked flavors. This is actually a niche market within the beef jerky market since the new products target consumers who don't care for the dryness, flavor and toughness of tradition beef jerky products. The new items are made from lean, high quality beef and sold in reseal able packages. These steak snacks have a higher moisture content than conventional jerky strips, which is a significant step toward developing higher moisture, perishable finger foods. The leading competition in high-moisture food items is of course chicken. Tony Mata, acting National Cattlemen's Beef Association executive director for new products and culinary initiatives, says tenderness after cooking in a fryer is chicken's big advantage. Beef actually gets tough with the quick cooking methods. I think the new higher moisture jerky type beef snacks might be a step in the right direction so chicken nuggets better start checking the rear-view mirror because with just a few new technical advances in preparation beef might be coming over the horizon in a fast car. I'm Jeff Kane. Beef September 2005