Demand For "Grilling" Foods Decrease

Maybe it was the storms and the heat: After a month in which demand for meat products suitable for grilling rose, the June edition of the Food Demand Survey from Oklahoma State University indicates that consumers are feeling more favorable toward "inside" foods like pasta and deli ham. Consumers' willingness to pay for steak dropped (-9.01 percent), along with chicken breast (-10.81 percent), hamburger (-2.40 percent), pork chops (-7.76 percent) and chicken wings (-0.56 percent), compared to levels in May. Meanwhile, willingness to pay for deli ham rose (+6.88 percent), along with beans and rice (+4.03 percent) and pasta (+32.97 percent).The only animal protein consumers indicated they planned to spend more on was chicken. As prices are expected to rise for all three major species, poultry still rings in at a lower price point overall.Regarding awareness of food issues among consumers, "pink slime" registered a spike — unsurprisingly, as the $1.9 billion defamation suit over the product got under way last week in Elk Point, S.D.Finally, consumers largely stuck by their belief that smaller and more old-fashioned is better. Asked whether fruits and vegetables from small producers, who are exempt from mandatory food safety inspections, were more or less at risk of causing a food-borne illness than produce from a large company that does undergo mandatory inspections, 12.5 percent of respondents said they believed the small producers are at less risk, and 60.7 percent of respondents said the companies were at equal risk.