Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 7/14/15

Chicken continues to attract consumers’ attention at the meat case, but the protein is not without its concerns.

The National Chicken Council conducted an online survey, underwritten by WATT Global Media and Elanco Animal Health, to explore consumers’ attitudes in more depth. Joyce Neth, WATT’s director of audience development and research, and Matthew Perkins, senior advisor at Elanco, presented their findings at NCC’s Marketing Seminar here Monday.

They found that 90 percent of consumers reported being “extremely,” “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the safety of the chicken they buy at retail.

Other concerns, in rank order, were disease, hormone and steroid use, antibiotic use in chickens, confusing or misleading packaging and label claims, and how the birds are raised.

However, 60 percent of consumers indicated that they were “very likely” to seek out more information about the chicken they buy, from the USDA or other government website. Another 38 percent said they would likely seek out information from the brand or company website, which opens up marketing opportunities for processors.

Whatever their concerns, it does not appear to be curbing consumption of chicken: 85 percent of consumers ate a chicken meal or snack purchased from a supermarket and 67 percent ate a chicken meal or snack from a food service establishment in the two weeks leading up to the survey. These numbers are at parity with those seen in 2014.

In the next 12 months, 23 percent of consumers anticipate eating more chicken from the supermarket and 14 percent anticipate eating more from a food service establishment.

The survey was conducted online by ORC International in among 1,019 adults.

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