Natural beef market is the fastest growing part of the market

by Deidre Woollard, Posted Oct 13th 2005 @ 10:05AM

One of the macro food trends is that many consumers are making a move toward healthy foods and changing the food industry with the power of their wallets. ABC News has a report on the fact that natural beef, produced without growth hormones or antibiotics, is the fastest growing segment of the beef market. Concerns about mad cow disease and the success of stores like Whole Foods have contributed to this phenomenon. The organic and natural beef market is still less than one percent of the overall U.S. beef market but it's growing at a rate of 20% annually meanwhile overall beef production has slipped slightly from 25.1 billion pounds in 1995 to 24.6 billion pounds this year according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Currently the definition of "natural" on beef is fairly wide open but producers of natural beef want the restrictions to be a little tighter. The natural and organic beef producers are still the little guys in the beef market but are betting that increased consumer awareness will lead to bigger sales. Of course, like organic produce, there are concerns about cost but hopefully the more people that buy it the lower the cost will get.

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Filed Under: Business, Newspapers, Ingredients
Tags: beef, dinner