Heat & Serve Beef Entrees Enter Convenience Meals Market

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) expects great things for 1999, thanks to the inroads they hope to make in the convenience meals market. New product technology now allows the beef industry to offer American consumers an assortment of fully cooked, heat and serve beef products. Going after the rotisserie chicken niche, products will include pot roast and beef stew that can be prepared in the microwave in about 10 minutes.

"Busy consumers can now create beef meals from a microwave without compromising that one-of-a-kind great taste they expect from beef," said Chuck Schroeder, CEO, NCBA.

While microwaveable beef entrees make up just 4% of the more than $17 billion spent on retail beef products each year according to a 1998 study by Information Resources, Inc., consumer trends for ease and convenience indicate tremendous growth potential for these products.

Manufacturers such as Burnett and Son, Flint Hills Foods, RMH Foods, Inc. and No-Name Steaks are paving the way for "easy beef." Other branded beef companies with heat-and-serve beef products include Excel Corporation, Harris Ranch, Lloyd's Barbecue; Mosey's and Emmpak Foods.

In addition, the NCBA and its new product consultants have come up with Rotiss-A-Roast, a tender and juicy beef alternative to rotisserie chicken that can be purchased at supermarket deli cases and taken home ready-to-serve. It carries a lean label, as it contains only 6-g of fat (2-g grams of saturated fat) per 3-oz serving.

With dual-income and single-parent families, longer work hours, more women in the workforce, and a younger generation with less cooking knowledge, the beef industry recognizes that beef dishes like pot roast and stew have become less popular. But the economical cuts of beef that go into those dishes, like chuck and round, represent more than 60% of a beef carcass by weight. The hope is that products like Rotiss-A-Roast and microwaveable beef entrees will put those cuts back on the kitchen table as well as offer an easy, timesaving solution to mealtime dilemmas.

The NCBA, the marketing and trade organization for America's one million cattle ranchers and farmers, will put $25 million behind a fully integrated marketing program that includes advertising, public relations, promotions, retail and foodservice partnerships, and co-marketing with leading food manufacturers of heat-and-serve beef products. The new advertising campaign breaks in January 1999 and is designed to build awareness and drive purchase of these innovative dinner options.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation's food and fiber industry.