NEWSWATCH 2011-07-11

PORK BOARD ISSUES NEW POS MATERIALS

DES MOINES, Iowa — In light of the U.S Department of Agriculture's revised recommendation for safely cooking pork, the National Pork Board is busy getting point-of-sale materials ready and expects to get them to retailers soon. “We'll have posters, signs, headers, rail strips, and later, we'll do some promotions with meat thermometers,” Patrick Fleming, the NPB's director of retail marketing, told SN. The USDA now recommends cooking all whole cuts of meat, including pork, to 145 degrees Fahrenheit as measured with a food thermometer placed in the thickest part of the meat, then allowing the meat to rest for three minutes before carving or consuming. Recommendations for safely cooking any ground meat remain the same — cook to 160 degrees. Previously, the USDA had recommended cooking whole cuts of pork to 160 degrees. “In 1999, the USDA said restaurants could cook pork safely to 145 degrees, so this has been a long time coming,” Fleming said. “It's a happy day for pork, and a sad day for gravy and sauces, because now people won't be overcooking pork [which makes it dry]. Now, it'll be juicy, have more flavor.” Fleming added that the revised USDA recommendation could mean more pork sales for retailers. “The lower cooking temperatures will give consumers a better eating experience. So they'll probably buy pork more frequently.”

COFFEE BOOSTS C-STORE PURCHASES

HOUSTON — Shoppers heading to convenience stores for coffee or other dispensed drinks don't often buy those items on impulse, according to a new NPD Group study. A study by NPD's Convenience Store Monitor found that 86% of dispensed coffee purchases are planned, and only 14% of other dispensed beverages are impulse buys. Only 7% of coffee purchases and 13% of other dispensed beverages are bought on a deal. NPD said these coffee and dispensed beverage shoppers are also going to convenience stores 68% more often than typical convenience store shoppers. While convenience store customers are typically 18- to 49 year-old men who work blue-collar jobs, those who buy dispensed drinks are often white-collar Hispanic women ages 35 to 64 from large households, according to the study. Coffee buyers, on the other hand, are often men from age 45 to 65, from both white-collar and blue-collar higher income jobs, with a military connection and small households. All in all, 31% of all convenience store unit purchases are from coffee and dispensed beverages. NPD notes that when a customer buys a dispensed beverage, the average receipt comes to $6.83. A little under half of morning coffee buyers also buy another item like a breakfast sandwich or doughnut.