DES MOINES, Iowa — 2022 American Cured Meat Championships coordinator Matt Wenger of Iowa State University shares some thoughts about this year’s competition and what makes a winning ACMC entry.
A little flexibility isn’t a bad thing. With all of the food options available today, it turns out consumers don’t want to have to choose between only eating meat or a plant-based diet. Blended meat options — real meat combined with vegetables or plant-based proteins — offer a compromise.
This year has seen a tremendous resurgence of breakfast meats due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with improved quality, convenient formulations and consumers’ demands for high protein at breakfast.
Candace Cage, brand manager for Gone Rogue snacks, discusses the new flavors, the early successes and the type of consumers of Land O’Frost’s unique protein snack brand.
As much as we may hope for traditional gatherings over the holidays, this year’s celebrations will certainly look different because of COVID-19. But younger consumers were already driving changes to holiday celebrations.
Barbecue is growing moderately in restaurants, with overall barbecue menu items growing 11 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Chicago-based Mintel International’s Menu Insights (MMI).
With more consumers increasing snacking activity, merchandisers are in position to boost meat and poultry revenues with new options and by spotlighting the proteins' attractive attributes.