Chicken Consumption Continues Longrun Rise
Jean
Buzby; Hodan
Farah
Is chicken on your menu today?
Perhaps in an enchilada or a stir fry made at home,
or chicken tenders at a restaurant tonight? If so,
you will have plenty of company. Chicken consumption
more than doubled between 1970 and 2004, from 27.4
pounds per person to 59.2 pounds (boneless, edible
weight). Chicken is gaining ground on beef, the
current leading meat.
Chicken consumption has climbed
since the 1940s, according to ERS’s per capita
food availability data, a widely used proxy for
actual food intake. Food availability data go back
to 1909 for many commodities and include all food—from
grocery stores, restaurants, school cafeterias,
and other eating places.
Part of the rise in chicken consumption
results from the chicken industry’s response
to demands by consumers and foodservice operators
for value-added, brand-name, and convenience products.
McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets revolutionized
chicken as both a convenience and a frozen food
in the early 1980s. According to the National Chicken
Council, 42 percent of chicken is now sold through
foodservice outlets. Of this amount, 60 percent
is sold through fast-food chains, which have introduced
new lines of chicken sandwiches, salads, wraps,
and tenders to meet the rising demand for chicken.
Grocery stores typically stock
boneless, skinless breasts; rotisserie-cooked whole
chickens; and seasoned chicken parts—all value-added
products for convenience-minded shoppers. Chicken
consumption has also benefited from health-related
concerns about beef. Ounce for ounce, chicken has
less total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol than
beef, according to USDA’s 2005 nutrient database.
Innovations in breeding, mass
production, contract farming, vertical integration,
and marketing have made chicken more plentiful and
affordable. The average live weight per broiler
nearly doubled to 5.35 pounds from 1934 to 2004,
and it reaches that weight in less time. These supply-side
changes and the expansion of the broiler industry
have lowered per unit production costs. As a result,
the “composite” price (whole bird, breast,
and leg prices, weighted by estimated quantities
purchased) in 2004 dollars for a pound of chicken
was $1.74 in 2004, versus $2.22 in 1980.
|
