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Insuring beef’s future through genetics, research and finding out

published: November 13th 2009
by: Martha Hollida Garrett

While producers strive to produce a product that will yield a positive eating experience every time, there is also a lot of work gong on in university research labs, taste test panels and with consumers groups to insure a strong market for beef in the future.
    For decades, cowmen have placed selection pressure for increased weaning and yearling weights. As they have done this carcass weights have also increased and on the flip side, consumers have become portion and costs conscious.
    The National Quality Beef Audits (NQBA) have detailed these increases and the average carcass weights has increased 41 pounds over four NQBAs. While this is the average increase, there is still a number of outlier carcasses that are considered to be much heavier than desired. These present the industry with a problem as they don’t necessarily fit into the fabrication lines, there are quality issues and the cuts are bigger than what the consumer wants.
    Dr. Jeff Savell, meats professor at Texas A&M University encourages, “cowmen to go to the meat counter at the grocery store and watch what their customer is buying.”
    Savell and a team of researchers conducted tests on innovative fabrication of ribeyes, top siloin butts and strip loins from heavier carcasses to create information that could be used to fabricate these differently and create markets for the heavier carcasses in the industry.
    “A desire to uitilze portion control at the dinner table by U.S. consumer, in addition to the want for uniform retail cuts in the marketplace has driven the concern for the increase in caracss wieght tha has been observed in all four NQBAs,” describes Savell.
    Another area of beef research concerns the type of products that consumers want from their meat.     Never before have the signs been more obvious describing the issues surrounding today’s consumer, according to research by the Beef Innovation Group, consumers are time pressed.  Consumers chose convenience over all other factors for food, such as healthfulness, price and taste.   
    Other information gain-ed from the consumer study include:
    • 65% try to eat healthier, but 33% don’t have the time to prepare or eat healthy meals
    • 47% of consumers say they would likely use curbside takeout if their favorite tableservice res-taurant offered it.
    • 19% of all meals are now eaten inside cars.
    • 21% of children 6-17 are overweight and is expected to rise to 33% by 2020.
    The key to increased beef consumption is the development of new products that are convenient and those that also appeal to today’s youth.  Research into these areas has yielded in over 50 new beef products that consumer panels have tested in the past year.
    Recent work by the Beef Innovations Group and industry experts led to the development of two product platforms that will drive new product commercialization efforts beginning in 2009.
    One of the platforms is called The Bread Carrier. This  platform utilizes doughs, wraps, bakeable coatings, etc., as a carrier of steak, shredded beef, hamburgers, and other beef products.  The focus will be items that beef owns because of its equity or products that do not lend themselves to other proteins.
    The other platform is The Steak/Burger Exten-sion platform. This  works to expand the presence of steak, steak products, and hamburgers in the channels by increasing the number of applications or use either through stand-alone products or as ingredients in manufactured products.
    Sales opportunities exist across both platforms for new beef products as a breakfast item, convenient, on-the-go solution and a snack/appertizer of fourth meal as it is often called.
    Developing unique, cutting-edge products that contain beef as a filling is key to providing operators and retailers the potential for increased sales and menu differentiation.  In-novations in packaging and processing technology are allowing for quick and easy preparation methods that meet the needs to today’s busy consumers - either while they are running errands or at home.
    Another are of research has concentrated on new cuts and muscle-profiling. This year, the Beef Check-off program, which financed the meat study, will introduce five new cuts from the chuck. Four cuts from the round will be rolled out next year.  They’re turning previously overlooked parts of the beef carcass into savory steaks, roasts and boneless ribs. The new cuts are less expensive than traditional steaks, they say, but comparable for flavor and tenderness. The enhanced value of the product totals in the millions of dollars each year, a boon to  beef producers.
    Five new cuts have resulted from the most recent research: the Denver, Delmonico, America’s beef roast, country-style boneless beef chuck ribs and the Sierra. A handful are already on the market.
    Before muscle-profiling research, 30 percent of a cattle carcass contained most of the value: the filet, the ribs and the thick cuts of steak. The remaining 70 percent was considered “hunk and chunk,” used for roasts and ground beef and worth $2 to $3 per pound. This same research produced the flatiron cut, petite tenders and ranch cut, all of which sell for about $6 to $8 per pound.
    Those three cuts increased the amount producers receive by $60 to $70 per head, according to Cattle Fax, a market research industry analyst.