Beef Briefs - January 2010
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Look for Beef Briefs to be delivered the first of each month -- your snapshot of beef checkoff news affecting the dairy and beef industries. Editor’s note: please feel free to use these beef “blurbs” as space allows in your publication or online content. If you would like to expand on a certain topic, please e-mail Melissa Slagle at mslagle@beefboard.org.
In case you missed it…
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… From convention in January, be sure to follow the MyBeefCheckoff meeting blog for the latest updates.
Texas-style Barbecue
For nearly 20 years, the Texas Beef Council has teamed with the U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.usmef.org) to host Hong Kong’s most prominent event featuring American food — The Great American Barbecue, Texas Style. This year’s event at the Kowloon Cricket Club attracted a record turnout of more than 500 invitation-only guests from the island’s food and beverage trade. They enjoyed a delicious selection of slow-cooked U.S. beef items, including whole roasted ribeyes, grilled-to-order striploins, brisket, hanger steaks and top blade muscle.
Guest chef Timothy Broderick manned USMEF’s Texas smoker, crafting a magnificent barbecue menu that paired slow-cooked beef with a wide range of complementary American food, including wild Alaska salmon, Colorado lamb, artisan cheeses, seasonal fruit and craft beers. Many products were donated by local purveyors and food importers, while three local restaurants – En Japanese Group, Korea House and Jimmy’s Kitchen – prepared dishes according to their unique menu concepts. Gastro Primo, a prominent Hong Kong caterer, set up a full U.S. beef taco bar. In total, the event featured beef products from 10 U.S. companies and food from 28 sponsors.
Capturing Food Dollars
The beef checkoff continues to expand their online recipe presence on Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. after recent focus group data and studies that show consumers search for recipes on beef packages or online. Online recipe databases are becoming so important that recently allrecipes.com announced it had become the biggest online recipe resource, with numbers that make it rival Better Homes & Gardens. (Source: Pavone)
Women-To-Women
A multimedia advertising campaign with a “women-to-women” theme was recently unveiled in South Korea. The effort was developed by checkoff contractor U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and was designed to raise the visibility of U.S. beef among South Korean consumers and counteract persistent negative images that have lingered since U.S. product reentered the market in mid-2008. Developed after extensive consumer surveys and testing of the messages with focus groups, the campaign consists of television commercials, print ads and bus ads on the theme of “Trust.” The “Trust” theme will be integrated into other USMEF activities, including retail and foodservice promotions.
The ads are built around three women: a rancher, a scientist and a food safety inspector. The women are depicted in their work setting as well as with their children – sending the clear message that these women are both professionals as well as mothers who work to guarantee the safety of the beef they feed to their own families. The ads are being targeted to women with school-age children who, research shows, are the primary food purchasing decision-makers in the Korean family.
Beef and Dairy Partnership
For the third consecutive year, the checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program is partnering with the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (DCHA) to promote beef quality assurance to growers of dairy bull and heifer calves. The partnership helps extend the BQA message into this often hard-to-reach segment of the cattle industry. In addition, it allows the BQA program to access some of the most progressive players in this segment of the industry and to help develop targeted BQA best-management practices for calf growers. For more information about BQA, visit www.bqa.org.
Extending the Cook-Off’s Reach
The number of National Beef Cook-Off (NBCO) media impressions since the event was held on Sept. 23, 2009 in Sonoma, Calif., has reached over 69 million. The Sacramento Bee reported that Jon Clemons, the 28-year old chef at Capitol Garage restaurant who competed in the 2009 NBCO chef challenge is now featuring a value menu item selling for $10.95, Bistro Steak Salad, inspired by the winning recipe in the National Beef Cook-Off home-cook competition. It’s great to see how the culinary world can be influenced by the Cook-Off’s recipes and Web site.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
Funded by the Beef Checkoff.
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