CONTACT: Melissa Slagle
303-867-6306
mslagle@beefboard.org
I’LL TAKE A BURGER WITH A SIDE OF
BURGER.
It’s National Hamburger and Beef Month
which gives producers a reason to
celebrate.
(CENTENNIAL, Colo.)
– For over 40 years, the month of May
has been a time to recognize the more
than 800,000 dedicated men and women who
produce high quality, wholesome,
nutritious beef known around the world.
But May is also National Hamburger
Month. So it’s a good time to hail to
the hamburger and bow to the
beef…producer that is.
Hamburgers. It may seem as simple as a
food that got its name from Hamburg,
Germany. But the original ground beef
patty on a bun may have been from the
Mongols who brought it to Russia;
seafarers that brought the patty idea
back to the port city of Hamburg; Louis'
Lunch - the New Haven, Conn., burger
joint; "Hamburger Charlie" Nagreen; or,
the Menches Brothers. But
it seems no matter what the tale, the
ending is still the same – consumers
love a good burger.
Recognizing that not all ground beef
goes to making the perfect burger,
however, two years ago the checkoff-funded
ground beef initiative kicked off with
these things in mind: improving
consumer perceptions of ground beef’s
nutritional value and health benefits;
increasing availability and access to
ground beef and ground beef products;
communicating positive messages about
ground beef; and, adding value through
processing improvements and product
innovation.
“Just like hamburgers aren’t only made
in May, producers don’t just take
extra-special care of their animals or
the food they produce only one month of
the year. It’s what we do every day –
bring healthy, nutritious food from our
pastures to consumers’ plates,” says
Cattlemen’s Beef Board Chairman Dave
Bateman, farmer-feeder from Oregon, Ill.
“Our beef checkoff continues to work to
increase consumer demand through things
such as the ground beef initiative,
grocery store promotions, summer
grilling and so many other programs.”
One component of the ground beef
initiative included testing consumer
appeal of an extra lean burger patty,
where it received extremely high
consumer marks.
And the ground beef initiative nutrition
message is resonating with consumers:
consumers bought an additional 85
million pounds of 78 percent lean (or
better) ground beef at the grocery store
in 2007 when compared to 2004. The
fastest growing subcategory during this
period was 85 to 89 percent lean beef.
And, a 95 percent extra-lean patty now
is available to school foodservice and
households where leanness is an
important buying consideration.
Still, no matter how you slice it,
hamburgers still are the most popular
beef item for consumers. Americans
consumed approximately 11.9 billion
burgers in 2007. Forty-one percent of
Americans eat burgers at least once a
week and 85 percent eat burgers once a
month. That’s reason to tip your hat
to beef producers.
For more information about
checkoff-funded efforts, visit
www.beefboard.org.
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.
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