Preferences & Complaints Associated With American Lamb Quality In Retail & Foodservice Markets

Transcription

1 Preferences & Complaints Associated With American Lamb Quality In Retail & Foodservice Markets Keith E. Belk Henry N. Zerby Dale R. Woerner Travis W. Hoffman Colorado State University The Ohio State University

2 Sheep Safety & Quality Assurance History 1991 ASI initiated development of Quality Assurance program National Sheep Quality Audit; W. E. Cunningham & S. B. LeValley 2001 Producing Consumer Products from Sheep: The Sheep Safety & Quality Assurance Program; D. L. Roeber et al Producing Consumer Products from Sheep: The Sheep Safety & Quality Assurance Program. T. W. Hoffman et al National Sheep & Lamb Quality Audit; S. B. LeValley et al Producing Consumer Products from Sheep: The Sheep Safety & Quality Assurance Program; T. W. Hoffman et al Online SSQA Training accessible to producers

3 American Lamb Industry Roadmap: Objective 3. Conduct a Lamb Quality Audit Every Three Years There is nearly unanimous agreement in the industry that lamb characteristics MUST be improved. Most of the data about lamb quality is anecdotal, not quantitative. There is no robust data to document the level of meat quality currently. The U.S. chicken, pork, and beef industries have a much more extensive knowledge of their quality problems and what their future priorities should be. Imported lamb has developed a strong reputation for being much more consistent than American lamb. If the American lamb industry is going to survive, it has to know What to improve and How to improve its eating characteristics. Source: The Hale Group, 2013

4 Sheep/Lamb Industry Interviews a) Personnel of sheep, retail and foodservice trade associations. b) Personnel of Federal and State government regulatory, marketing and service agencies. c) Personnel of the food service industry including white table cloth, family dining and quick serve restaurants to obtain as much information as is provided regarding problems, improvements, opportunities and consumer demands of the sheep/lamb industry. d) Representatives of retail supermarket and grocery companies to obtain as much information as possible regarding problems faced as a retailer, improvements that can be made, opportunities that may exist and the consumer demands of the sheep/lamb industry.

5 Define Lamb Quality What is quality and what quality factors drive the company s purchasing decisions? 1) Food Safety 2) Eating Satisfaction 3) How & Where Lambs Were Raised 4) Visual Characteristics 5) Weight & Size 6) Lean, Fat, & Bone 7) Sheep Genetics

6 How is Quality Defined?

7 Most Companies, In Each Market Sector of NBQA- 2011, Suggested That Industry Is Not Transparent Enough & Does Not Do A Good Job Of Telling Their Story & Engaging The General Public In Production & Processing!

8 Best/Worst Scaling Selected attributes are evaluated with a best/worst scaling methodology. Seven criterion are evaluated through a series of questions to quantify an objective ranking of relative importance of each quality attribute.

9 NBQA 2011: Retailer Must-Have Before I Will Purchase

10 Willingness-to-Pay Sophisticated interview software is used to randomly formulate & select WTP values based on a company s answers concerning the specified quality attributes (i.e., buckets ); so questions are dynamically routed as answers are provided to each sequential question.

11 NBQA 2011 Willingness to Pay

12 Strengths Of The U.S. Beef Industry 1 Retailers Foodservice Packers Feeders Product quality Industry Image & Promotion Consistency Product quality Marketing program Supply diversity Premium product Taste People they care for the animals & land Quality product; wholesome Taste & eating satisfaction Nutrients & health Government & Allied Industry Safe eating experience; demand Research, technology, & innovation Efficient process 1 Based on the number of times that each characteristic was mentioned as a response to the question.

13 Weaknesses Of The U.S. Beef Industry 1 Retailers Foodservice Packers Feeders Not telling Not telling Cost Variability our our story story More concerned with exports Resistant to change Marketing Too fragmented Fragmented/ Transparency (tie) Transparency Consumer perception Too fragmented Cost Government & Allied Industry Too fragmented Not telling our story Lack of industry education & knowledge Independenc e 1 Based on the number of times that each characteristic was mentioned as a response to the question.

14 Potential Threats To The U.S. Beef Industry 1 Retailers Foodservice Packers Feeders Cost Activist groups Government & Allied Industry Activist groups Cost Activist groups Government regulations Government regulations Public perception Shortage of supply Commodity prices Cost Cost Corn prices Animal disease Activist groups Government al regulations 1 Based on the number of times that each characteristic was mentioned as a response to the question.

15 Assessment of Retail and Foodservice Lamb Attributes Fresh, boneless retail lamb cuts (N = 800) 40 chain retail stores (20 retail packages per store; 5 each of cuts from the leg, loin, rack and shoulder) 10 U.S. metropolitan areas. Retail stores will be identified based upon market share information. A minimum of 4 retail chain stores will be sampled in each metropolitan area. Will not sample club stores (e.g. Costco, Sam s Club, etc.). Only non-enhanced, whole-muscle lamb cuts from the leg, loin, rack and shoulder will be sampled (approximately 200 of each equally distributed across the metropolitan areas and stores within metropolitan area).

16 Assessment of Retail & Foodservice Lamb Attributes Lamb product assigned an identification number City, retail store, month/year of purchase e.g., Albuquerque, NM might be city ID 01, store zip code is 87108, loin chop is NAMP 1232C, purchased in June 2014 = Digital image collected L*, a*, and b* color Intramuscular fat percentage Cut thickness Price per unit weight Total package cost Brand and/or supplier information Warner-Bratzler shear force Source: