Alberta Beef Producers hopes to draw attention to the health benefits of burgers and promote ground beef consumption
A federal proposal to put health warnings on ground beef helped spark a contest that invites Canadians to declare their burger-eating style for a chance to win a prize package worth about $1,000.
“It’s definitely something that we took into consideration when we were developing this,” said Lindsay Roberts, marketing and communications manager for Alberta Beef Producers. “The whole point of this contest is to draw attention to the health benefits of making burgers and having burgers as part of your summer, and promoting ground beef consumption in a really fun way.”
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Canadians over the age of majority for their province have until Aug. 31 to enter online at howdoyouburger.ca for an Ultimate Summer Grilling BBQ Prize Pack. It includes a barbecue grill for what is “basically a barbecue picnic,” said Roberts.
“So, you’ll get some beef products, you’ll get some great spices, some great grilling tools and things like that just for the best barbecue experience.”
Roberts said ABP staff came up with the idea for the contest as they were sitting around ordering burgers.
“And we realized that everybody eats their burger a little bit differently, so we tried to have a little bit of fun with it.”
The contest’s website has a drop-down menu asking people to select the choice that best describes them: the squisher, the picker, the connoisseur, the stealer, the tipper, and the inspector. They must also enter in their contact information, said Roberts.
“And then all you have to do is submit, it takes two minutes. Super quick and easy.”
Proposed changes to federal regulations would have required the front of packaging to contain labels informing consumers that ground beef and pork are high in saturated fat. It sparked widespread opposition by beef and pork producers who feared it could impact everything from domestic demand to exports to foreign markets.
“Alberta farmers and ranchers are struggling right now, and our federal government should be supporting our industry in the middle of a global food shortage, not working against it,” ABP chair Melanie Wowk said in an earlier interview.
As a result, the federal government granted a technical exemption to raw, single-ingredient whole meats such as ground beef and pork. “Requiring a symbol on ground meats and poultry and not on whole cuts of meat may lead people in Canada to erroneously believe that all whole cuts are healthier than ground,” said a federal statement.
As a nutrient-dense whole food, ground beef offers significant health benefits, said an APB statement. “It contains essential dietary nutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin B12 that are important to health at every stage, according to Canada Beef Inc.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a decline in demand for ground beef from restaurants, the crisis also prompted many Canadians to take more interest in where their food comes from, said Roberts.
However, they aren’t always sure how to go about getting that education, she said. “So, that’s definitely one of our objectives behind this contest is just bringing attention to the fact that Alberta beef comes from your backyard basically, and it’s a great option.”
More than 90 percent of Canadians eat ground beef each week. About 40 percent of the national cattle herd is in Alberta, with about 70 percent of beef products in Canada processed by packing plants in the province, said Roberts.
Alberta’s beef industry employs more than 55,000 full-time workers and contributes more than $4 billion to the province’s gross domestic product, said Wowk. However, many producers have been forced to downsize their herds due to the rising cost of inputs such as fuel and fertilizer, combined with severe drought last summer that boosted the cost of feed, she added.
ABP represents nearly 18,000 producers in the province, said Roberts. “And a lot of those producers also do mixed farming, so they’ll do hay, they’ll do oats, they will do grains and stuff like that in addition to their beef operation, so a lot of producers that you see in the province are also contributing to the agriculture industry in other ways.”
