BANFF, Alta. – For many busy people, anytime is mealtime.
And with a greater variety of food available from gas stations, convenience stores, vending machines and restaurants, more people are opting for keyboard or dashboard dining, says Frank Goetz, vice-president of marketing for Centennial Foods.
“There is tremendous challenge for traditional retailers and sellers of products,” Goetz said during the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association annual meeting March 1 in Banff.
“The fastest growing segment is breakfast sales and it is solely because of Tim Horton’s coffee and doughnuts.”
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Based in Calgary, Centennial Foods is a privately owned company with $230 million a year in sales. The company develops and produces marinated food, finger food, snacks and precooked meals that can be heated in a microwave. About 90 percent of its production is beef sold as patties, ground or specialty meat and private label products.
The greatest challenge for value-added companies like Centennial is coming up with new and tasty foods that are easy to prepare.
It costs between $25,000 and $250,000 to develop and launch a new product.
“It typically takes a company a year to develop a new product,” Goetz said. “We try to do it in three months.”
However, it is increasingly difficult to find good cooks, meat cutters and knowledgeable retail food buyers, so companies like Centennial must provide retailers with further developed products and marketing ideas. More stores are eliminating their meat cutting departments for food safety reasons and because of a shortage of butchers.
While Canada does not have case-ready pork or beef, Fred Free of Cargill Foods in High River, Alta., said imported beef is still finding its way into Canadian stores and the food service industry.
He said it is still common to see 12 to 16 ounce steaks on the menu in U.S. restaurants, but Canadians prefer cuts half that size. As a result, restaurants are willing to use meat from outside North America because the cuts are smaller and fit on the plates.
Pressure for smaller, more consistent cuts makes Cargill’s job more difficult. Cattle supplies are variable and carcasses are getting bigger every year.
A 700 pound carcass is the preferred size, but the average for the last several years has been around 820 lb.
“Those carcasses are very difficult to sell into the food service industry and they are more becoming difficult to sell into the retail industry,” Free said.
For instance, selling large T-bone steaks from a 900 lb. carcass is a challenge.
One steak could cost as much as $12-$13, so an average family is not likely to buy three or four for a meal and may look for an alternative.
It is expensive to trim cuts to fit the plate.
“A half an inch left on the tail of a prime rib equates to a 15 cent a lb. difference in cost,” Free said.
“Little things make a huge difference to the person running a meat market.”
He said suppliers such as Cargill have also noticed there is a shortage of qualified staff in the meat industry.
As well, many retailers do not fully understand the meat industry, he added. There is a lack of food safety knowledge and they often do not understand how food is produced before it arrives in their stores.
