18 December 2007

2 minute read

Europe

The independent survey into consumer attitudes has been commissioned by Quality Meat Scotland. The red meat industry body regularly looks to research to provide vital insights into changing attitudes that are the all important drivers behind what red meat a consumer buys.

The latest work from IGD* reveals:

• 50% of Scottish consumers say when buying red meat they look to check that the meat is lean – an increase of 15% in four years – and overtaking both price and sell by date for the first time
  
  
• 78% of Scottish shoppers say they buy Scotch Beef compared to 29% of English shoppers who say they buy English beef
  
  
• 74% of Scots say they buy their red meat from the supermarket – up 6% on the year before

QMS Chairman, Donald Biggar said: “Consumer attitudes to their red meat, what they look for in the shop and what they’re prepared to pay a premium for, are constantly evolving. We need to know what they thinking so we can feed the right information into marketing campaigns and send out messages that can influence what people will buy.

“For example we have included information on the 40% reduction in the level of fat in red meat achieved by the Scottish industry in the last 30 years in our marketing material for the current Feel Good About Meat campaign, which highlights the positive health benefits of eating red meat as part of a balanced diet.

“Research like this is not just valuable to QMS though, it offers vital insights to individual businesses who may want to make adjustments to their own production or marketing activities that can give them a commercial advantage in the marketplace.”

*IGD conducted 642 interviews in Scotland and 780 interviews in England with a sample adults aged 15+ between August and October. Findings are compared with similar research carried out over the past four years.

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