Popularity Of Meat Marinades Is Rising

MATTHEW ENIS

DALLAS — There has been a “huge jump” in the popularity of marinated meats during the past year, according to the sixth annual “Power of Meat” report, presented here at the Annual Meat Conference, a production of the American Meat Institute and Food Marketing Institute.

The 1,200 consumer participants in the survey were asked whether they had cooked with a marinade in the past three months. The number of respondents who indicated that they did rose from 75% in 2009, to 81% in 2010.

“Because of cooking shows, because of our population becoming more diverse, because of [various ethnic] restaurants opening up … we're seeing a big trend in food in general with more spices and more flavor,” said Anne-Marie Roerink, principal of market research group 2010 Analytics, and former director of research for FMI. “So, it's no surprise that marinated meat is one of the areas that's showing a lot of growth.”

Store-marinated products were responsible for some of the growth, but shoppers are also buying more mixes to marinate fresh meat and poultry at home. Sixty-one percent of shoppers who use marinades are buying bottles of marinades or bags of spices at the store, while 32% are making their own marinades or mixes, according to the study.

“What this tells me is that there's an enormous cross-merchandising and upselling opportunity in terms of marinades and spices with meats,” said Roerink.