Supermarket Perimeter - March 2020 - 42

Meat & Poultry: Free-from

worked with the USDA to establish and regulate regarding how livestock
is raised, is now diluted to only express how meat is processed and the
ingredients in the product," Coleman says. "Quite a departure from the
original USDA deﬁnition for natural."
Worpel believes the industry can change misconceptions through
openness and transparency.
"Open Prairie Natural Meats offers an uncomplicated, 'never ever'
protein choice committed to upholding high standards of openness,"
she says. "We believe in open, honest communication with all of our
partners, from independent ranchers and farmers who supply our cattle
and hogs, to the customers who purchase our products."
Ernst says the importance of having the "no" claim on the package
alerts consumers that the products are safe to consume.

A growing segment
From lifestyle choices to medical motivations, a variety of reasons exist
for the increase of foods with free-from claims in the marketplace.
Some consumers are choosing foods free of speciﬁc food ingredients
that ﬁt within a certain lifestyle, while others are looking to easily identify foods to help them adhere to therapeutic diets.
Free-from claims also offer a convenient way to quickly identify
foods that meet the needs for individuals with food allergies or food
intolerances.

Heidelmark says these products are on the rise as customers have
become more wary of the negative effects of antibiotics and other additives on their health and the environment.
"For poultry, we see an increased demand for organic chickens; however, the price difference between organic poultry and poultry that may
be without antibiotics is often too signiﬁcant for many customers," he
says. "Because of that price difference, we still sell substantial amounts
of antibiotic-free-but not organic-poultry. We have found that the
increase in interest in these types of products has been increasing the
most in the last three years."
Within poultry, data from Mintel shows that GMO-Free, organic, hormone free, and no additives/preservatives continue to grow in prevalence.
"Consumers continue to rank attributes that communicate free-from
as most important to them, but are also skeptical over the trustworthiness of some of these claims," says Monica Stewart, registered dietitian
nutritionist for Tyson Foods. "Meat is ranked at the top of all categories
where consumers are seeking free from claims."
According to IRI, all-natural meat claims totaled $7.3 billion last year,
and the numbers are on the rise.
There are a number of reasons that consumers desire free-from meat
and poultry. In fact, a report conducted by Coleman Natural Foods
showed consumers not only want to know where their food comes
from, but how animals are raised and handled. The report revealed
that 63% of consumers are looking for protein that has been humanely
raised, 72% want no artiﬁcial ingredients, 62% want no antibiotics and a
staggering 7 in 10 want meat raised in the USA.
"Healthier, more naturally raised animal equates to better quality
meat, and taste," Coleman says. "Antibiotic resistance is a huge issue in
both animals and humans. Choosing to purchase and consume protein
that has been raised with no antibiotics ever is an important way consumers can 'cast their vote' helping to combat that issue."

Supermarkets can beneﬁt from this trend by educating the staff on what
the claims on the labels mean, offering educational materials such as
instore signage and social media content and encouraging consumers
to read labels.
"Displaying materials at the meat case that help explain the production process and what separates natural and never ever meat
from the other offerings is crucial," Worpel says. "For example, Open
Prairie Natural Meats has a wide selection of POS materials and educational materials to help consumers and meat managers understand
the program and its unique attributes. The Tyson Fresh Meats Team
has done immense research in the natural category and we can use
our insights to help retailers drive natural meat sales as the category
continues to grow."
With a core business in natural foods, Weavers Way Co-op is already
positioned as a purveyor of free-from products. However, Heidelmark
notes it does provide more signage than many retailers so that customers know exactly where the meat and poultry comes from and how it
was raised.
"We sticker individual products when it is local and also when it is
grass-fed," he says. "We write stories about the farms we source from and
even take tours of them with staff and, on occasion, even our customers."
42 - MARCH 2020

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WAYNE FARMS

Education at the store level

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