If you haven’t noticed lately, the world of meat is really changing. Now there are a cornucopia of options at grocery stores and restaurants. According to the American Meat Institute (AMI), consumers “recognize that meat delivers protein and other essential nutrients.” Their 2007 study found that meat is an American dinner staple. Four in 10 consumers serve beef and chicken three or more times a week; one in ten eat pork just as often. In response, processors are now offering more variety of meat in convenient and flavorful forms to address this consumer interest.

There are a number of important drivers behind these trends that include a growing ethic population, serious concern for animal welfare and sustainability, and a committed devotion to full-flavor found in well-marbled animal breeds. Overall, it’s an exciting time to embrace these powerful meat trends to create new business opportunities in manufacturing and foodservice alike.

Trends in Meat, the July issue of the Culinary Trend Mapping Report, examines the ingredients, cooking styles and ethnic influences that the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) has identified as about to hit, or have established themselves, in the U.S. We delve into goat meat, pork belly, American Wagyu (kobe) beef, grass-fed beef, buffalo, niche pork, ethical meat and Angus beef, and critically assess how food marketers can take advantage of these hot trends.

Key Strategies

• Where these meats are appearing along the trend map
• How new uses and applications of these meats may suggest a preparation or dish that will grow into the next big thing.
• Actual menu items where these meats are appearing
• Applications for the packaged foods/retail side of the business
• New product and menu-item introductions inspired by emerging and existing meat trends
• CCD translation tips - how to turn these trends into actionable menu, product and retail developments
• Future impact of meat trends on the industry

Market Assessment: Consumers, Professionals, Business
Strategic Implications: What are, in CCD’s words, the “strategic levers” food marketers, foodservice operators and food retailers should pull to identify opportunities for new product development based on meat? Kimberly Egan, CCD’s managing partner, invites us to consider how meat trends can help packaged goods manufacturers and restaurant operators hoping to excite today’s consumer with more flavorful and exciting food options. Operators and manufacturers can benefit from a wealth of new meat options, in terms of new animals, new cuts, re-discovered breeds, new premium selections and new ethically produced versions of nearly every kind of meat.

Professional Perspective: Marsha McBride, owner of Berkeley, Calif.’s, Café Rouge, is an unabashed meat admirer and bullish on the future of meat eating in the U.S. In this issue, McBride, who was a former chef at San Francisco’s legendary Zuni Café, talks about trends she sees taking root, both among her meat-loving clientele and in the nation at large.

Industry Insights: Joan Lang is another industry veteran who has made her reputation working for and writing about food for a diverse library of publications, ranging from the Zagat Guide to Restaurant Business to Foodservice Director. She’s also been a managing editor for the Culinary Institute of America and has been a consultant to many of the top food marketing companies in the country.

Joan reminds us that while meat is the heart of the meal in the minds of most consumers, the food industry must work with a relatively small group of core products when it comes to meat. So, the variety that consumers demand is more a matter of technique, not just in cooking, but also in raising and processing these animals.

With extensive profiles of each ingredient/food emerging within the five stages of the trend map, this meat issue of the Culinary Trend Mapping Report provides you with the most up-to-date, insider’s look at what’s hot and what’s not in the world of food. Top food marketers rely on trend mapping to keep them on the pulse of what’s happening and what’s about to happen as far as consumer tastes are concerned.

• • • The Culinary Trend Mapping Report is an indispensable tool for those whose job it is to stay abreast of what's hot - or what will be - in the food world!

Using the Center for Culinary Development’s (CCD) signature Trend Mapping technique, a validated method identifying which culinary trends are “gaining traction” and which are simply flashes in the pan, each report concentrates on a theme, or trend, that is affecting the food industry, and then looks at the emerging and established ingredients, cooking styles and products along the Trend Map that are driving this theme.

Each report is a 75+ page journal packed with trends, data, strategies and insights on the food industry that simply aren't available anywhere else.

Each Issue of the Culinary Trends Mapping Report

• Identifies the maturity level of foods and ingredients according to CCD’s unique, proprietary 5-stage trend mapping process.
• Concentrates on a theme that is affecting the food industry, and then looks at the emerging and established trends along the Trend Map that affect—or are affected by—this theme.
• Delves into these trends and what they mean for you and the manufacturing, retailing, and foodservice industries.
• Gives strategic insight into how consumers are thinking of and reacting to new foods and ingredients.
• Provides business know-how regarding opportunities, challenges, and ways to implement current trends into foodservice, retail, and packaged goods operations.
• Presents a feature interview with a member chef from CCD’s exclusive 80+ member Chefs’ Council® that offers expert analysis and his or her perspective on a specific trend.

Additional features include:

• Menu Tracking: Menu mentions of our featured Trend Map items. Within the trend profiles, we will offer a summary of how often the trend has appeared on menus in restaurants ranging from 75 white tablecloth restaurants to the top 200 chains.
• Trend Dishes: Actual descriptions of all dishes for top restaurant chains for each of the trends appear in the report Appendices to provide a comprehensive overview of how the trends are being served.
• Industry Veterans Speak: Points of view from an industry perspective on what each trend means—whether positive or negative—to the food industry at large, including consumers, professionals and businesses.

Trend Mapping
Trend Mapping is guided by the premise that major food trends pass through five distinct stages on their way to the mainstream:

• Stage 1: The ingredient, dish and/or cooking technique appears at upscale dining establishments, ethnic and popular independent restaurants.
• Stage 2: The item is featured in specialty consumer-oriented food magazines, such as Gourmet and Bon Appetit plus retail stores such as Sur La Table that target culinary professionals and serious home cooks.
• Stage 3: The item begins to appear in mainstream chain restaurants -- Applebee's or Chili's -- as well as retail stores such as Williams-Sonoma that target recreational cooks.
• Stage 4: Publications such as Family Circle and Better Homes and Gardens pick up the buzz.
• Stage 5: Finally, the trend makes its way to quick service restaurant menus and is either starting to appear or is having increased presence on grocery store shelves.

Availability
Published bimonthly, the Culinary Trend Mapping Report is available for purchase as a single issue or a six-issue subscription.

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