Lean meat top with consumers

- Published: 19 December, 2007

New research from IGD, the grocery industry's think-tank, reveals that buying lean red meat is more important than ever before as far as consumers are concerned, QMS has revealed

New research from IGD, the grocery industry's think-tank, reveals that buying lean red meat is more important than ever before as far as consumers are concerned.

The independent survey into consumer attitudes, which was commissioned by Quality Meat Scotland, found 50% of Scottish consumers said when buying red meat they look to check that the meat is lean - an increase of 15% in four years - and overtaking both price and sell by date for the first time.

A further 78% of Scottish shoppers said they bought Scotch Beef compared to 29% of English shoppers who said they bought English beef , while 74% of Scots said they bought their red meat from the supermarket - up 6% on the year before.

QMS Chairman, Donald Biggar said: "Consumer attitudes to their red meat, what they look for in the shop and what they're prepared to pay a premium for, are constantly evolving.

"We need to know what they thinking so we can feed the right information into marketing campaigns and send out messages that can influence what people will buy.

"For example we have included information on the 40% reduction in the level of fat in red meat achieved by the Scottish industry in the last 30 years in our marketing material for the current Feel Good About Meat campaign, which highlights the positive health benefits of eating red meat as part of a balanced diet.

"Research like this is not just valuable to QMS though, it offers vital insights to individual businesses who may want to make adjustments to their own production or marketing activities that can give them a commercial advantage in the marketplace."

The research was based on 642 interviews in Scotland and 780 interviews in England with a sample adults aged 15+ between August and October.