US meat consumption appears to have so far been unaffected by the recent report of a case of mad cow disease in Canada.
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“The mad cow problem hasn’t really shown an impact,” Keith Bollman, an analyst at Topco Associates, was quoted as saying by Reuters. “I think the average consumer believes that the US beef is safe, and (that) all the beef they’re buying is really US beef.”
A spokesman for US supermarket operator Winn-Dixie said: “We haven’t seen any effect (on weekend beef sales) from the mad cow story.”
The recent holiday weekend is traditionally one of the strongest periods for beef sales in US supermarkets but there were fears consumers would stay clear of beef following the BSE discovery in Canada.
“Our contacts are very, very large retailers, and they’ve all said the same thing – the weekend (beef) clearance was above average for a normal weekend,” said Ann Barnhardt, analyst at HedgersEdge.com.
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By GlobalData“For Memorial Day, it was a tad slow, especially on the East Coast, just because of the weather,” Barnhardt said. “But there were no questions (from consumers) or quarrels about the wholesomeness of the product.”
Last week the US placed a temporary ban on imports of Canadian beef and cattle after a cow in Alberta tested positive for BSE.
