Meat + Poultry - April 2005 - 65

The Insider
Joining the club

Hair of the hog

Club stores are having an impact on the perimeter of grocery stores, according to Doug Bennett, a client director for
ACNielsen, Shaumburg, Ill. "In the past, when we thought
about club stores, we didn't think about the perimeter," he
said during ACNielsen's annual Consumer 360 conference,
held this past month in Hollywood, Fla. "However, they are
having a dramatic impact."
According to Bennett, fresh meat sales increased
22 percent in the past year, and sales of deli meats are up
9 percent. "A common misconception is the club store is
best for large pack sizes of shelf-stable goods," said Bennett. "Clearly, the perishables departments are performing
well for the channel."

As demand for high-end,
niche pork products continues to grow and processors
of breeds like Berkshire
become more common,
some breed-specific issues
at the plant level are beginning to crop up. Sioux Center, Iowa-based SiouxPreme
Pork has discovered, for
example, that the hair on
the 35,000 to 40,000 Berkshire hogs it slaughters and
processes each year is much
more difficult to remove
than its commodity hogs.
"Getting the hair off is
always a challenge," says
Gary Malenke, president.

Cleaning tip
During an M&P-sponsored session at this past month's
Food Safety Summit in Washington, D.C., Dr. James
Marsden, professor of animal science and industry at Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, shared an effective method of
cleaning less obvious areas in meat plants. In his discussion, which was focused on on Listeria monocytogenes
technologies, Marsden mentioned a compound known as
Securegel, which is applied to equipment parts that are
rarely cleaned because they are too difficult to reach. Marsden says once the product is applied, it stays on equipment,
such as condensers or the tops of smokehouses, and keeps
cleaning for extended periods of time.

Brought to you by
MEAT&POULTRY Magazine
Cartoon by Bob Bliss

Prime Ribbing

He says the Berk breed's
hair is thicker and rooted
deeper than the run of
the mill breeds. One run
through the singer isn't
enough. "Black hogs are
no fun from a line worker's
standpoint." The only solution for now is to slow
down the operation to give
workers more time to finish
the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture-required de-hairing
process before the carcasses
go into the cooler.
"You just have to put
people in those choke point
areas where the problems
are and run your line a little
slower at the same time."
he says.

Over herd
"You worry. I'm bald because
it takes six months to find out
whether you did things right."
- Lee Edwards, Smithfield Foods' ham master on the
low-tech, finicky process of crafting the company's
country hams (Source: The New York Times)

Hi, may I help you?
As the baby boomer generation continues to mature, Todd Hale, senior vice president of consumer
insights for ACNielsen/Homescan, Covington, Ky.,
sees implications for the meat and poultry industry.
"The 50-plus segment represents 30 percent of the
population today," he said. "By 2020, they will represent 47 percent of the population."
What does this mean for the meat and poultry
industry? According to Hale, it could mean a few
changes in the retail meat department. "Fresh food,
including fresh meat and produce, are viewed as a
good value by the 65-plus segment," said Hale. "In
addition, they like personal service. For example,
while 39 percent of consumers under 65 like to visit
a full-service meat counter, 49 percent of consumers
65-plus prefer a full-service meat counter."
If this trend holds, someone needs to start training a whole new generation of butchers.
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MEAT&POULTRY

April 2005

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Meat + Poultry - April 2005

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