Beef’s Great Taste – Importance of Beef Flavor

Great taste is the primary reason consumers frequently make beef their food of choice for a pleasurable dining experience. Research conducted to examine consumers’ preferences for various protein sources (beef, chicken, fish, pork, shellfish) has shown that a pleasurable eating experience is the number-one driver of protein preference, whether dining at home or in a restaurant (NCBA, 2006). In a 2006 investigation of factors influencing beef purchases (Reicks, 2006), consumers were asked to rate the importance of nine different product attributes (tenderness, juiciness, flavor, product consistency, ease of preparation, nutritional value, natural, organic, and price) when making beef purchase decisions. In that study, the most important “purchasing motivators” were (1) taste attributes, (2) price, and (3) product consistency (Reicks, 2006). Similarly, Moeller and Courington (1997) found that consumers rated attributes related to the eating experience (i.e., flavor, tenderness, meal enjoyment, and consistent quality) as most important when purchasing beef. Delivering a desirable eating experience time-after-time is fundamentally important to sustained growth in beef demand (Schroeder and Mark, 2000).