You can t put the consumer all in one block, but all of them want a safe, good-tasting product and something that they perceive to have value. One of the first things that happens when cultures increase their standard of living they is add more meat to their diets. The United States can produce more high quality beef, pork and chicken more efficiently than anywhere else in the world. Domestically, beef is going to take more market share from chicken, because chicken was the first to make products more consumer-friendly, and now beef is following that strategy. Pork had better get serious about quality, because about two-thirds of the hams on the market are pumped full of so much water that they don t have any flavor.
Pork needs to realize people want quality and that means some inter-muscular marbling.
The pork industry has to start taking quality seriously. About one in five pork loins that I buy are dry and don t have much flavor. The industry can t shrug its shoulders and say the consumer doesn t know how to cook pork or use any other excuses. This article is a follow-up from Nichols presentation at the 1999 NSIF annual conference.