...

The Power Meat 2007 study--produced by the American Meat Institute and the Food Marketing Institute--reports that one-fifth of the population already purchases natural and organic meats.

More than 21 percent of the more than 1,500 shoppers surveyed indicated that they bought natural or organic meats in the previous three months, up from 17.4 percent year earlier.

The study also found that chicken--purchased by 73.2 percent of respondents--is the most popular natural and organic protein. It is followed by beef, which was bought by 50.7 percent of the natural and organic shoppers. Next is ground meat at 31 percent; fish at 26.8 percent; turkey at 21.1 percent; pork at 19 percent; lamb at 9.5 percent; and veal at 3.9 percent.

While more supermarkets are marketing their own private-label lines and dedicating sections of the meat case for the selections, supplier-branded proteins account for the bulk of natural and organic offerings.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that "natural" may be used on meat and poultry labeling if it can be demonstrated that a product does not contain any artificial flavor or flavoring, coloring ingredient, chemical preservative or other artificial or synthetic ingredient. Products also cannot be more than minimally processed.

Items labeled "100-percent organic" must contain (excluding salt and water) only organically produced ingredients using methods that minimize pollution from air, soil and water.

Items branded "organic" have to consist of at least 95-percent organically produced ingredients (excluding water and salt). Remaining ingredients must be non-agricultural substances that are on the USDA's National List of approved ingredients, or be non-organically produced agricultural products that are not commercially available in organic form.

The number of producers meeting those guidelines--along with their range of products--is expanding along with the demand for natural and organic proteins.

NATURAL & ORGANIC GUIDE NATURAL MEAT AB Foods LLC (800) 657-6305 Jay Theiler, jay.theiler@abfoodsusa.com executive director of marketing Applegate Farms (908) 725-5800, ext. 253 Bruce Hickie, vice bruce.hickie@applegatefarms.com president, sales Bell & Evans (717) 865-6626 Kevin McBride, vice kmcbride@bellandevans.com president of sales Blackwing Meats Inc. (847) 838-4888 Roger Gerber, owner roger@blackwing.com Butterball (630) 955-3022 Chris Bekermier, cbekermier@butterball.com brand manager Cargill Meats (952) 742-7575 Mark Klein, director cargillmeatsolutions.com of communications Carolina Turkey (919)...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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