Many Unaware of Leak-Proof Items

MATTHEW ENIS

LEAKY MEAT PACKAGES HAVE long been a pet peeve for shoppers, and during her presentation of the annual Power of Meat study at the 2011 Meat Conference in Dallas, research consultant Anne-Marie Roerink said that consumers are expressing a growing awareness of leak-proof options. Some are even saying that a leak-proof item could get them to switch their purchase.

However, meat departments that offer vacuum-sealed products may need to build awareness of these offerings. Twenty-seven percent of respondents to the Power of Meat study said that they have purchased vacuum-sealed packages before. Their reasons varied. Nineteen percent of those buyers preferred vacuum-sealed items because they were freezer-ready. Almost 25% said they had made the purchase because the item was on sale, and 17% said that the item they wanted was only available in a vacuum-sealed package. Twenty percent said they bought a vacuum-sealed item for “no one particular reason.”

These results are a little surprising, considering that almost 30% of respondents to the Power of Meat study said that they would increase meat purchases if packages were leak-proof. Although awareness does appear to be growing, many shoppers are apparently still unclear about the availability of leak-proof items. Among those shoppers who said they had never purchased vacuum-sealed products, 84% said they were unaware of these options, or that they had no reason for avoiding them.

The Annual Meat Conference is a joint production of the Food Marketing Institute and the American Meat Institute.