Ground Beef: Implications for the Southeastern U.S. Beef Industry

Currently the United States consumes an estimated 39 to 45 percent of its beef in the “ground” form [3, 7, 8]. As recently as 1972 the estimated percentage of beef consumed as ground was only 33 [3] and some industry leaders have estimated the proportion by 1985 to be from 50 to 65 percent [5, 8, 11, 12]. This increasing trend in the percentage of beef consumed in the ground form is often attributed to several factors including (1) an increase in the percentage of wives working away from home which results in more “eating out” and less home preparation of “traditional” meat dishes for those meals consumed at home, and (2) the continuing growth of the fast-food restaurants and their popular “hamburger” meals [5, 8, 11, 12].