Meat packaging aims to please

Franzreb adds, "If you're an empty nester or a single parent or you just have a smaller family in general, you may not want to purchase the larger packages. You may want to purchase smaller portions and then have the option of either using those or freezing them."

Wegmans Food Markets (www.wegmans.com), Rochester, N.Y., has expanded on the success of its proprietary Keeps Fresh vacuum packaging for meat by offering a club pack of fresh strip steaks in Keeps Fresh packaging. Each steak is individually sealed within the vacuum pack, so consumers can cut off a single portion if that's all they want to cook.

For greater convenience, Wegmans has modified the structural design of the Keeps Fresh packaging, adding a pull tab to make it easier to open. The strip steaks will be the first Wegmans meat product in the easier-to-open Keeps Fresh structure; others will follow during the summer.

Just before its merger with Pilgrim's Pride, Gold Kist Inc. developed a Fridge-to-Freezer Pak for chicken for Costco stores. Designed for smaller households, the package segregates fresh chicken parts into individual vacuum-sealed pockets.

Pilgrim's Pride is targeting the smaller household with its Fridge-to-Freezer Pak for chicken. Introduced last year in Costco stores, the package segregates fresh chicken parts in individual vacuum-sealed pockets that can be separated, then frozen or refrigerated. The package was developed by Gold Kist Inc., which has merged with Pilgrim's Pride.

Also in the Pilgrim's Pride line-up are premium-priced, single-serving packages of fresh chicken. Each package contains either a single chicken breast or three chicken tenders. The primary package is a form-fill-seal slider bag, and the outer package is created using vacuum-cavity equipment from Multivac (www.multivac.com), Kansas City, Mo. The products are sold refrigerated.

Organic branding challenge

Health and wellness are increasingly important drivers when it comes to meat packaging and products. Increased sales of natural and organic meats reflect the trend.

Cryovac-sponsored research, conducted by the Washington-based American Meat Institute (AMI) (www.meatami.com) and Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute (FMI) (www.fmi.org), shows demand for natural and organic meat is on the upswing. Of shoppers surveyed, 21.2 percent said they had purchased natural or organic meat within the past three months, up from 17.4 percent in 2006.

Additionally, the survey revealed that chicken is the most often purchased natural or organic meat, with 73.2 percent of respondents saying they had bought it in the past three months. Next most popular was natural or organic beef, with 50.7 percent saying they'd purchased it, followed by ground meat at 31 percent.

The number of natural and organic meat brands is growing quickly, as well — so much so that consumers are sometimes confused by what they see in the meat case.

"It's up to the organic marketer to educate consumers ... and create a brand that speaks beyond organic. They need to create a compelling brand with a strong emotional connection," says Dan Mishkind, principal at Pure Design Co. (www.puredesignco.com), Leverett, Mass. Pure designs packaging for natural/organic product marketers such as Dakota Beef LLC.

A University of California-Santa Cruz study of consumer attitudes about food revealed the package is the primary place to create that brand story: "81 percent of respondents said product labels were the most desirable choice for obtaining more information about food, followed by brochures or retail displays," Mishkind says. "So obviously the package has to work hard."

Wise Kosher Natural Poultry (www.wiseorganicpastures.com), Brooklyn, N.Y, put its packaging to work when it rebranded its products and redesigned its packaging. Wise packages now carry a double-certified kosher and organic seal as well as a new brand name, Wise Organic Pastures. Pure Design implemented the rebranding/redesign.

Wise's chicken packaging incorporates the emotional brand story of the company's founder, homemaker Rachel Wiesenfeld, who challenged herself to bring a healthier chicken to the kosher community. Since the rebranding/repackaging, the product line has experienced 40 percent growth.

The safety imperative

Along with health and wellness, food safety is gaining mindshare among consumers. With foodborne-illness outbreaks frequently punctuating the news, it's hard not to think about the safety of the food we eat at home and away.

In a four-week period this spring, three meat packers based in Michigan, Minnesota and California recalled a total of more than 354,000 lbs. of beef. Though unrelated, all three voluntary recalls sprang from fears of possible E. coli contamination. The recalls came on the heels of foodborne-illness outbreaks related to spinach, lettuce, peanut butter and pet food.