You are on page 1of 7

Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Appetite
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a p p e t

Research report

Convenient meat and meat products. Societal and


technological issues
Frdric Leroy a,b,*, Filip Degreef b
a Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology (IMDO), Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel,
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
b Research Group of Social and Cultural Food Studies (FOST), Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

A R T I C L E

I N F O

Article history:
Received 28 October 2014
Received in revised form 22 January 2015
Accepted 24 January 2015
Available online 2 February 2015
Keywords:
Convenience
Meat
Packaging
Shelf-life
Consumer
Slaughter

A B S T R A C T

In past and contemporary foodscapes, meat and meat products have not only been following convenience trends, they have been at the heart of them. Historically, the rst substantial demands for meat
convenience must have been for the outsourcing of hunting or domestication, as well as slaughtering
activities. In its turn, this prompted concerns for shelf-life stabilisation and the development of preservation strategies, such as meat fermentation. Demands for ease of preparation and consumption can be
traced back to Antiquity but have gained in importance over the centuries, especially with the emergence of novel socio-cultural expectations and (perceived) time scarcity. Amongst other trends, this has
led to the creation of ready meals and meat snacks and the expansion of urban fast food cultures. Additionally, contemporary requirements focus on the reduction of mental investments, via the convenient
concealment of slaughtering, the optimisation of nutritional qualities, and the instant incorporation of
more intangible matters, such as variety, hedonistic qualities, reassurance, and identity. An overview is
given of the technological issues related to the creation of meat convenience, in its broadest sense, along
with their societal implications.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
Food convenience is fundamental to present-day food markets.
It has been identied as one of the chief trends in consumer lifestyles, besides ways of shopping (fast shopping versus shopping in
specialised outlets), quality evaluation, and purchasing motives
related to, for instance, environmental concerns (Grunert, 2006). According to some estimates, the convenience trend may represent
some 16 to 18 per cent of the drive for food innovation in Europe
(Chamorro, Miranda, Rubio, & Valero, 2012).
In its most conventional form, food convenience is obtained via
high degrees of industrial processing and is driven by a demand for
ease of collection, preparation, and consumption, in particular with
respect to requirements of energy, time, labour, and skill (Ahmad &

Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge nancial support of the Research


Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel [OZR, SRP, and IOF projects, and in particular the HOA project Artisan quality of fermented foods: myth, reality, perceptions,
and constructions (grant HOA21) and the Interdisciplinary Research Program Food
quality, safety, and trust since 1950: societal controversy and biotechnological challenges (grant IRP2)], as well as from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and
the Hercules Foundation (project UABR09/004). Luc De Vuyst is acknowledged for
his critical reading of the manuscript.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: eroy@vub.ac.be (F. Leroy).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.01.022
0195-6663/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anders, 2012; Belasco, 2008; Quested, Cook, Gorris, & Cole, 2010).
This leads to a facilitated ow of food from eld or stable to plate. A
reduced physical and mental investment by consumers is called for
in the general process of shopping, preparation, cooking, and handling of the food, as well as in the clearing up after the meal (Buckley,
Cowan, & McCarthy, 2007; Grunert, 2006). Some foods are even expected to be eaten effortlessly during everyday activities, i.e. while
watching television, working at a desk, phoning, or on the move.
Underlying drivers for convenience have been identied as alterations in lifestyles, including the assimilation of women in the
workforce, the emergence of single-person and small households,
variable family eating times, role overload, consumer deskilling in
terms of knowledge and cooking skills, as well as individualistic and
impulsive consumerism focussing on value-for-money, stress reduction, and time saving (Bernus, Ripoll, & Panea, 2012; Celnik,
Gillespie, & Lean, 2012; Chamorro et al., 2012; de Boer, McCarthy,
Cowan, & Ryan, 2004; Fischler, 1996; Jaffe & Gertler, 2006). For instance, time spent by North-Americans on food preparation currently
averages less than half an hour daily, whereas this was about 45
minutes to 2.5 hours in the mid-20th century (Barbut, 2012; Celnik
et al., 2012).
Of particular interest to consumers is the convenience and ease
of preparation of meat-based meals, with meat generally still being
the central element of Western diets (Font-i-Furnols & Guerrero,
2014; Ogle, 2013). Amongst European consumers, for instance,

F. Leroy, F. Degreef/Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

Added value to confer physical and mental convenience (trustworthiness,


familiarity, variety, excitement, and nutritional benefits)

Partial outsourcing of
preparation

Hidden meat
production

Immediate
availability
(at low cost)

Meat and meat-based


products and meals
for home cooking

Full outsourcing of
preparation
Immediate
availability
(at low cost)

Shelf-life

Ease of
preparation

Ease of
consumption

Ready-to-eat meat
and meat-based
products and meals

Fig. 1. Overview of the overall convenience framework of meat and meat-based products and meals.

41

relying on local butchers but gradually moving towards supermarket purchases, has been described for Greece (Krystallis,
Chryssochoidis, & Scholderer, 2007).
Even within a single nation, considerable heterogeneity can be
found, as has been described for Spanish attitudes towards lamb
meat, a relatively expensive product with little versatility in terms
of cooking and requiring a rather extensive preparation (Bernus
et al., 2012). In brief, convenience characteristics of lamb were a key
issue for the uninvolved type of consumers, consisting of young
and educated males with low incomes, but much less so for consumers of the traditional and adventurous types, which enjoy
creative cooking. In general, the importance of convenience for lamb
meat was better predicted by place of residence, age, and level of
formal education, than by gender and income, although price setting
clearly played a role. In addition to the latter parameters, household size has also been shown to affect convenience preferences for
meat and meat products (Resano, Prez-Cueto, Sanjun et al., 2011).
Availability and affordability

convenience has been identied as the second and third most important determinant of satisfaction with pork products and fresh
pork, respectively (Resano, Prez-Cueto, Sanjun et al., 2011; Resano,
Perez-Cueto, de Barcellos et al., 2011). As a result, convenience has
been at the basis of several major innovative technologies in the
meat sector and continues to be so (Troy & Kerry, 2010). The present
paper will generate an overview of the convenience aspects that
have been of importance for meat and meat products throughout
history, in particular by sketching the societal and technological relevance for contemporary societies. Figure 1 represents an overview
of the different aspects of convenience of meat and meat products
that will be systematically discussed in what follows.
Convenience of meat and meat products: general situation
With regard to meat and meat products, convenience is mostly
generated through technological processing in view of minimal preparation requirements at household level, preferably with substantial
shelf-life stabilisation. In addition, the wide availability of fully prepared meat snacks has become an important constituent of current
eating patterns. Yet to fully understand its nature and impact, the
concept should be tackled in its broadest sense by exploring the opportunities and constraints imposed by societal expectations and
food-related lifestyles (Grunert, 2006). Belasco (2008) therefore
places convenience as a major element besides identity and responsibility in his triangular approach of the complexity of food
systems. Of all foods, meat is arguably the most multidimensional
case with complexity on both the cultural and individual level
(Fiddes, 1991). As such, convenience is coupled to such divergent
issues as pricing, availability and choice, sustainability, safety, health,
and ethics, as well as to mental processes related to the instant generation of comfort, pleasure, excitement, reassurance, and familiarity.
This complex spectrum is also tied to a demand for mental insulation from any contact with the disassembly of animals into
refrigerated or frozen, plastic-wrapped cuts, meals, and snacks.
Expectations with respect to convenience of meat and meat products cluster along dimensions of culture and lifestyle (Grunert, 2006;
Vanhonacker et al., 2013), relating to the prevailing values and attitudes of consumers (Botonaki & Mattas, 2010). Cultural differences
may for instance be seen when comparing northern European countries with the Mediterranean area. As an example, Spaniards have
been reported to favour eating with friends or family and to be still
rather keen on buying fresh meat at traditional butchers (Bernus
et al., 2012), although the relevance of shopping in supermarkets
and hypermarkets is not to be underestimated (Chamorro et al.,
2012). A similar traditional meat chain, with consumers mostly

Humans have spent the vast majority of their existence as huntergatherers. The capturing of meat, a very perishable but highquality food, has been a laborious process that involved co-operation
of male band members and has been at the very centre of daily life
(Stanford & Bunn, 2001). One of the rst major steps towards food
convenience, as it is known today, may well have been the outsourcing of the collection, butchering, and preparation of meat, a
process that was initiated when human societies increased in size,
settled, and stratied into distinct social classes. Availability of meat
changed fundamentally from the Neolithic era on, with the advent
of agriculture and herding. Although part of the purpose of animal
domestication may have been to secure reserves of high-quality
protein, this was probably not for immediate meat accessibility
(Fiddes, 1991). To a certain extent, the modern notion of market
availability emerged during Antiquity, as in Roman towns meat was
sold in public (Alcock, 2006). Agricultural revolutions, especially in
the Low Countries and Britain, increased the availability of meat
products during the Early Modern Period (de Vries & van der Woude,
1997). Yet it was during the 19th century that a combination of
industrialisation, rationalisation, transport eciency, increases in
population and purchasing power, rising yields and new and improved methods of distribution, caused the whole food system to
change drastically (Segers, 2012). Large-scale, intensive farming of
animals dedicated to meat production and market supply did not
become established till the mid 19th century (Renton, 2013). A breakthrough was provided during the 1830s, due to railway shipping
of cheap grain and the establishment of the meat-packaging industry, such as in the Midwestern United States, enabling mass
production through an ecient division of labour along disassembly lines (Pilcher, 2005). The import of cheap American and Eastern
European feed after the 1870s also enabled land-short countries such
as The Netherlands and Denmark to start up factory farms for the
intensive production of pork and poultry (Renton, 2013). In parallel, meat availability became a major civil issue as concentrated urban
populations developed new needs. Whereas meat was a rare treat
to most during previous centuries, late 19th-century Londoners
enjoyed some 40 kg of meat per person per year with 40 per cent
of the supply being imported, for instance frozen Australian beef
(Renton, 2013).
Nowadays, the availability of meat and meat products in Western
regions is overwhelming when compared to African and Asian countries (Renton, 2013). Meat is supplied year round in abundance and
seasonal limitations or bottlenecks are hardly an issue, as illustrated for instance by the massive availability of turkey during
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays (Barbut, 2012). To the
detriment of small butchers (Krystallis et al., 2007), meat and meat

42

F. Leroy, F. Degreef/Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

products are increasingly channelled through large retailers and


e-selling (e.g., click-and-collect) seems to be gaining ground in the
case of meat products (Chamorro et al., 2012). Also, there seems
to be a trend for smaller high-street supermarket outlets with extended opening hours, leading to more immediate availability
(Quested et al., 2010).
Despite virulent and often righteous criticism of its modus operandi, the modern food industry has to be credited for its eciency
in bringing large quantities of meat to vast numbers of people under
very affordable conditions (Belasco, 2008). Whereas the average US
worker would have to work nearly three hours to buy a chicken
during the early 1900s, it took only 15 minutes of labour at the end
of the 20th century. A highly upsetting implication of the historically low prices for meat, however, is that its production is no longer
sustainable and producers are forced to cut costs to worrying levels,
with implications for animal welfare and environmental and safety
issues (Renton, 2013). Notwithstanding these concerns, contemporary market demands take meat availability at low cost for granted.
Inclusion of additional convenience, of course, comes at a price.
Despite price sensitivity being one of the most important drivers
of food choice decisions (Ahmad & Anders, 2012), willingness to pay
for convenience seems rather manifest, as is illustrated by the fact
that meat-based ready meals were one of the few food categories
displaying market growth during the recent Spanish economic crisis
(Chamorro et al., 2012). Similarly, the market for chilled ready meals
continues to show impressive growth rates in the USA (Quested et al.,
2010).
Shelf-life stabilisation
Making meat available in a context of domestication, and thus
season-dependent slaughtering, created a clear need for preservation. As a result, empirical preservation technologies have been
developed, based on salting, fermentation, drying, and smoking
(Leroy, Geyzen, Janssens, De Vuyst, & Scholliers, 2013). Overall, fermented sausages, raw hams, and other cured, sometimes smoked
pork products display remarkable shelf-life periods and can last
several months. The Egyptians already consumed salted quails or
other birds about 3000 B.C., and fermented meat products were
common amongst the civilisations of Western Antiquity. Smoking,
for instance, was developed as a meat preservation method by the
Celts and even professionally performed as a business in the Roman
Empire (Alcock, 2006). These techniques continued to offer an important and widespread means for meat preservation throughout
the ages, playing a key nutritional role in many traditional diets (primarily for the well-to-do) and remaining highly appreciated till today,
as well because of their unique sensory qualities (Leroy et al., 2013).
The outstanding stability of traditionally preserved meat products
is also illustrated by their regular use in military contexts. Fermented sausages, for instance, were used as convenience foods
during Roman military campaigns because of their energy-dense
and stable nature (Alcock, 2006), and salted beef preserved in barrels
was important to 18th-century British warships (Renton, 2013).
A major step to the introduction of convenience in the food sector
was the invention of canning around 1809, so that by the 1830s
American and European (luxury) shops began stocking canned meat.
Canned food did not turn into a mass consumed good before the
20th century due to its high pricing (Pilcher, 2005; Saunier, 2012),
although since the late 1880s so-called chain stores sold canned
meats (Van den Eeckhout & Scholliers, 2012). Convenience of canned
meats increased considerably after the introduction of thinner steel
since 1865 and the invention of the can opener, patented in 1870,
which replaced a hammer and chisel. Corned beef has become even
more accessible since 1890, after the addition of a key opening device
for rectangular cans (Kiple, 2007). Due to their convenience and
stable shelf lives, corned beef cans were commonly used in trench

warfare by the Allies during the Great War. Canning processes are
very ecient in eliminating microbial concerns, but also may have
pronounced effects on avour and texture, for instance due to denaturation of proteins. Nevertheless, such products are still available
and appreciated by many, for instance as canned pt or sausage
snacks.
Since the 1850s, fresh meat could be transported on a more reliable basis thanks to railroads and ice harvesting (Pilcher, 2005).
The introduction of the cold chain in meat logistics since the late
19th century represents a fundamental technological innovation,
revolutionising the entire concept of meat and involving a vast international network of meatpackers, wholesalers, and warehouses
(Ogle, 2013). Initially, both canning and freezing were not always
well received by local consumers, for instance in France, where
freshly slaughtered meat was believed to be superior due to issues
of quality and safety during the start-up phase of these products
(Pilcher, 2005). At rst, frozen meats were purchased, thawed, and
cooked the same day, until household refrigerators and freezers made
the purchasing and cooking of meat immensely more convenient,
as well as less wasteful and less expensive (Kiple, 2007). After the
introduction of the household refrigerator in the 1920s (Cayot, 2007),
up to 80 to 90 per cent of US families were able to refrigerate their
food by the mid-20th century (Kiple, 2007). The fridge however only
conquered Western Europe during the second half of the same
century (Scheire, 2012). Subsequently, during the 1970s and 1980s,
the chill supply chain largely gained in importance, increasingly offering ready-to-eat products (Quested et al., 2010).
In meat processing, packaging technology aims at providing an
oxygen barrier to delay spoilage of meat products via vacuum or
modied-atmosphere packaging, or rather introducing high oxygen
levels so as to accentuate the bright red colour of fresh meats by
stimulating the formation of oxymyoglobin (Troy & Kerry, 2010;
Zhou, Xu, & Liu, 2010). Innovations in packaging technology are expected to further enhance the shelf-life of meat and meat products
(Jang & Lee, 2005; Jeyamkondan, Jayas, & Holley, 2000; Zhou et al.,
2010), at the same time offering additional convenient features such
as the ease of (re-sealable) opening, transparency, and environmental friendliness (Chamorro et al., 2012; Eilert, 2005). Other
innovations include the development of lms that are compatible
with both traditional and microwave ovens (Eilert, 2005) and the
development of packaging materials that minimise or adsorb drip
losses (Troy & Kerry, 2010). Package size, in particular the differentiation between single servings and family packs is also of interest,
since it not only has implications for convenience but also for pricing
and storability (Ahmad & Anders, 2012). Even in traditional products, individual portioning is positively received (Vanhonacker et al.,
2013), as mentioned for dry-cured ham consumption by single
households (Resano, Prez-Cueto, Sanjun et al., 2011). Another packaging variation is provided by the eat me, keep me strategy, where
for instance a pt package is split up in two portions: one for immediate consumption and one for storage.
Ease of preparation
Outsourcing of food preparation goes back to Antiquity, at least;
cooks were employed as skilful specialists to readily service the gastronomic desires of the elites of Ancient Greece and Rome (Alcock,
2006). Although the profession of cook is still very relevant and inuential in contemporary societies, food preparation is now largely
being outsourced to industry. This resulted in a great expansion of
the processed meat industry during the late 19th and early 20th
century (Smil, 2013). Frozen individual whole meals and TVdinners that were industrially produced after World War II were
warmly welcomed by women entering the workforce (Cayot, 2007;
Kiple, 2007). In 1954, the company Swanson launched its iconic
turkey-based TV-dinner, followed soon by other items such as beef

F. Leroy, F. Degreef/Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

goulash and chicken cacciatore. The introduction of microwave ovens,


available in about 90 per cent of US households by 1988, further
catalysed the emergence of prepared meals and foods merely requiring a brief heating step (Kiple, 2007). This is not without risk,
because some of these products (e.g., pre-breaded raw poultry items)
appear as they have already been cooked, so that nal heating by
the consumer may be insucient, resulting in food safety hazards
(Quested et al., 2010).
With respect to poultry, easiness of preparation is a newer
concept. In 1960, 80 per cent of the poultry meat was still sold
under the form of fresh, whole birds, whereas this has now been
reduced to less than 5 per cent. Current aspects of convenience
involve evisceration, cutting to smaller portions, deboning, and skin
removal, as well as further processing into poultry products. The
latter products, encompassing sausages, hams, smoked breast meat,
and breaded products, now represent over 60 per cent of sales
in North America, as against only 3 per cent in 1960 (Barbut,
2012).
Due to the traditional role of salting, fermentation, and smoking
in the shelf-life stabilisation of red meats, ready-to-eat meat products such as cured hams, pastrami, and fermented sausages that do
not require preparation and have commonly been in use for centuries (Leroy et al., 2013). As a result of adapted packaging
technology, certain meat products, such as packaged beef jerky or
dry-cured salami, can now even be found in gas stations and vending
machines next to candy bars and potato crisps, as high-energy snacks
for immediate consumption without any form of preparation. Use
of such non-personal points of sales may however be badly received for the more traditional types of fermented meats
(Vanhonacker et al., 2013), partially due to the perceived association with unhealthy snacking (Khne, Vanhonacker, Gellynck, &
Verbeke, 2010). For traditional ready-to-eat meat products, direct
purchase at the manufacturer or at outlets offering a more
personalised approach may be perceived as more valuable
(Vanhonacker et al., 2013).

Ease and speed of consumption


Once prepared, convenience meats should not pose too much
trouble with respect to further handling and consumption. Already
during Antiquity, ease of consumption of meat and meat products
was a factor of consideration. Sausages, for instance, were popular
because they were rather soft and thus suitable for those lacking
teeth (Alcock, 2006). With the exception of a few products, such as
ribs, most of todays convenience meat is expected to be fully
deboned, whereas sinews and other undesirable parts should be
removed as much as feasible. Ease of consumption is particularly
important for meat snacks and the overall category of fast
food.
Throughout the Roman and Greek territories and colonies, bars,
taverns and street vendors provided several fast foods, including cooked meats, hams, and sausages, for easy and fast consumption
(Alcock, 2006). Next to Pompeian bathhouses, visitors could obtain
time-saving snacks from the popinae, where menus were served consisting of, for instance, chicken, ham, and peacock. Likewise, in the
baths of the legionary fort at Caerleon, a snack bar provided lamb,
mutton chops, and pork ribs, as well as chicken. By the late MiddleAges, a network of inns provided catering and takeout services, and
19th-century Londoners obtained snacks, including ham sandwiches, from street stands. The fast food culture found of course
its apogee with the world-wide establishment of hamburger restaurants, which originated to serve hurried auto tourists in the 1920s
and led to major chains such as White Castle and McDonalds
(Belasco, 2008). Typically, fast food enables quick and easy consumption without dependency on utensils.

43

Masking the slaughter


Of all agriculture, the meat business is the most secretive sector
(Renton, 2013), whereby meat has been dissociated from its animal
background (Belasco, 2008; de Boer, Hoek, & Elzerman, 2006). With
time, reminders of the animal origins, such as head and tail, have
been increasingly removed when served at the table, rst on sideboards and later in the kitchen. Butchering is now outsourced to a
minority operating in well-hidden slaughterhouses, in a process that
is abhorred but yet mandated via consumer demand. This process
became obvious from the 1870s, as consumers craved meat but also
desired urban life in clean cities, forcing meat-making out of sight
and, subsequently, out of mind (Ogle, 2013). This differs strongly
from the Medieval and Early Modern city in which herds had to enter
the cities on their own feet. The slaughter within the city walls provided inhabitants the comfort that meat was freshly obtained from
disease-free livestock (Ferrires, 2005). In the mid-19th century, the
combined visions, sounds, and smells of meat-making were still permeating urban life, with live animals on the street and slaughter
out in the open, yet attitudes changed. Some voices criticised this
by presenting it as youth-corrupting scenes of blood and violence (Ogle, 2013). Since then, the dependency on centralised and
increasingly automated abattoirs became commonplace in the
Western world.
Nowadays, meat production follows a from-birth-to-bacon approach. Meat is delivered reshaped and often cooked and
incorporated in a food where even hints of body parts and blood
are carefully masked (Fiddes, 1991; Font-i-Furnols & Guerrero, 2014;
Grunert, 2006). It is commonly presented as pre-sliced entities in
vacuum-packaged containers, in bread matrices (e.g., hamburgers
and hot dogs), or covered by crumb coating (e.g., chicken nuggets
and schnitzels). Restructuring technology is often used to achieve
this purpose (Sun, 2009). This extreme detachment of the living
animal has not always been a smooth process, as illustrated by occasional moments of public uproar. Since the exposure of serious
animal welfare issues by Sinclair (1906), leading to argumentation in favour of animal rights movements and vegetarianism, grave
cases of animal mistreatment have been uncovered on a regular basis
up until the present, for instance in several US chicken-killing facilities (Renton, 2013). Yet, industrial factory poultry still amounts
to 93 per cent of all chicken products, illustrating the very limited
impact that recent welfare-based outrages have had on actual levels
of production and sales.
Generally, mechanisms of directed or intentional forgetting seem
to be at play when consumers are purchasing and consuming meat
(Font-i-Furnols & Guerrero, 2014). Moreover, the desire for secretive animal production and slaughtering is culturally determined
rather than being universal, being much less of an issue in, for instance, cultures that perform ritual killing. In Vietnamese villages,
it is even open practice to blow-torch caged puppies to remove hair
before butchering (Renton, 2013). Likewise, South-African Bushmen
have been reported to laugh at the convulsions of dying animals,
framing the process of getting food in a context of joy (Burkert,
Girard, & Smith, 1987).
Added value: variety and excitement
In the course of the 17th century (de Boer et al., 2006) and with
the rising living standards during the last three decades of the 19th
century (Ogle, 2013), the status of beef rose and inuenced consumer demand towards the ner cuts, such as porterhouse, sirloin,
and rib roast. Generally, preferred meat cuts are dened according to national specics and display gradations from primal to inferior
cuts. In principle, easy access to a variety of different cuts may also
be considered as an element of convenience, yielding reductions
in physical and mental investment and an increase in food-related

44

F. Leroy, F. Degreef/Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

enthusiasm. Especially with respect to meat products, the variety


has become overwhelming, as will be discussed below. Yet, a point
may have been reached where consumers begin to prefer a less excessive spectrum of choice to facilitate purchase decisions (Quested
et al., 2010).
The inclusion of a variety of fun factors in food has been providing effortless ways of spicing up daily routine, so that processors
have indeed invested in the elaboration of instant pleasure and excitement factors associated with meat and meat products. The
structures and contents of fat and salt may for instance be engineered to enhance the allure and mouth feel of meat snacks. As
another example, pre-packaged lunch trays (Lunchables) were designed in 1985 by Oscar Mayer as a convenient but also exciting way
to sell more bologna meat, which was rapidly losing appeal due to
negative health connotations, as well as to meet the time constraints of working mothers. Part of the concept was the fun factor
of such meals, whereas the warm and friendly image also met consumer expectations. Often these meals involve combinations with
cheese, as to augment their bliss factor (Moss, 2013). Recently,
markets have identied a desire for convenient home cooking and
meal assembly, providing ready-to-use or semi-prepared ingredients for further elaboration (Quested et al., 2010).
Fast food chains have been very interested in approaches of diversication and instantaneous excitement, as documented for
instance by the introduction of the Big Mac, the Quarter Pounder,
and Chicken McNuggets in 1967, 1973, and 1979, respectively. In
a process of food globalisation, diverse ethnic and exotic touches
have been added but adaptation to local tastes has also been addressed, as illustrated by the BigSpice Chicken Wrap for Indian
markets (Smil, 2013). The development of food courts, grouping
fast food chains and offering a large variety of meal options, is a
further consequence of this trend (Belasco, 2008). In this search for
diversication, several poultry products have been launched, so as
to provide solutions for religious or health concerns and to offer sensorial variation. Chicken nuggets now come in a variety of
formulations and shapes, which requires considerable technological sophistication (Barbut, 2012). In addition, the introduction of
exotic and idiosyncratic variants into Western markets is being explored, as for the examples of Karaage and Tatsutage. Of course, such
new developments require sucient consumer acceptance and a
certain level of familiarity (Doan & Chambers, 2012). Consumers who
are open to novelty may welcome fast food and take away services to explore new gustatory and social experiences (Botonaki &
Mattas, 2010), whereas traditional consumers tend to be averse to
variety-generating innovations that interfere strongly with the
product characteristics (Vanhonacker et al., 2013). In this context,
food neophobia may be a factor of importance (Choe & Cho, 2011),
as will be discussed below. Alternatively, fast food chains may be
developed based on meat products with a traditional hue, as illustrated by Mediterranean-type street food in Spain (e.g.,
http://www.pansandcompany.com).
Added value: familiarity and trustworthiness
Globalised convenience-driven innovations, and in particular the
hamburger culture, has been characterised by traditionalists from
the Old Continent, as uniform, articial, and tasteless, undermining both health and cultural values. To such consumers, elements
of food tradition and origin are important cues (Geyzen, Scholliers,
& Leroy, 2012), in particular in the case of meat and meat products (Iaccarino, Di Monaco, Mincione, Cavella, & Masi, 2006; Leroy
et al., 2013). In contrast, US citizens qualify the fast food culture as
providing plenty of choice and abundance, whereas Chinese consumers even see it as a family-reinforcing expression of progress
and cultural sophistication (Belasco, 2008). In North-America, integration of novel food elements has been rather uent. Although

the rst modern convenience meats were positioned as allAmerican, they were not only including fried chicken and turkeybased TV dinners, but also borrowed foods such as hamburgers, hot
dogs, and pepperoni (Kiple, 2007). Italian elements were included
since pre-World War II, as for Krafts Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
and Ragu spaghetti sauce, introduced in 1937. German frankfurters were fully launched in the 1950s, a decade later followed by TexMex foods and wok or teriyaki foods.
Despite their above-mentioned openness to foreign food, US citizens may still be particularly concerned about trustworthiness of
meat-based foods, in particular when this is related to hygiene and
food safety. Not having to worry about food safety may indeed be
interpreted as a demand for convenience, reducing mental investment. Already in the beginning of the 20th century, Sinclair (1906)
shocked many American consumers with his description of sausagemaking in his inuential commentary on the meat processing
industry. Despite tightened regulations on the level of food hygiene,
convenient ready-to-eat meat-based products and meals have indeed
been identied as a risk factor for food-borne diseases, for instance due to the growth of Listeria monocytogenes or other
psychrotolerant pathogens in the chill supply chain (Quested et al.,
2010). This leads to a search for technologies that can eciently
reduce the microbial risks that are associated with convenience
meats and meat products, without compromising quality (Zhou et al.,
2010). Examples include the application of high-pressure processing, for instance applied on precooked sliced meats or beef-based
chilled ready meals (Quested et al., 2010; Sorenson et al., 2011). Alternatively, radiation processing can be applied, as shown for mutton
mince and chicken-derived products (Kanatt, Rao, Chawla, & Sharma,
2010). Since such technologies may be perceived as unnatural, meatpreserving methods based on natural antimicrobials are often
considered (Naidu, 2000), including the use of selected (bacteriocinproducing) meat starter cultures (Ravyts, De Vuyst, & Leroy, 2012)
and bioprotective cultures (Vasilopoulos et al., 2010; Vasilopoulos,
De Vuyst, & Leroy, 2015).
Worldwide, the importance of extrinsic product attributes is expected to rise in the future, especially with respect to certication,
packaging, and branding (Chamorro et al., 2012; Font-i-Furnols &
Guerrero, 2014; Grunert, 2006; Martnez Michel, Punter, & Wismer,
2011; Resano, Perez-Cueto, de Barcellos et al., 2011). Consumers are
clearly looking for reference points, since convenience-generating
processing may affect quality and perceived naturalness. Although quality is of course a dynamic and context-dependent
concept that is dicult to dene and leads to consumer heterogeneity (Font-i-Furnols & Guerrero, 2014; Iaccarino et al., 2006; Troy
& Kerry, 2010), some of the involved process steps can indeed measurably affect the nal sensory criteria (Cayot, 2007). Pre-slicing and
packaging of ham, for instance, leads to detectable avour losses
(Resano, Prez-Cueto, Sanjun et al., 2011). At some point, the importance of naturalness may also outweigh the demand of certain
consumers for further processing and ease of preparation
(Vanhonacker et al., 2013), as found for value-added poultry products (Ahmad & Anders, 2012). Such negatively perceived products
often encompass processed breaded/battered products, such as
chicken burgers and nuggets, as well as avoured chicken wings
(Martnez Michel et al., 2011). Similar observations have been made
for beef products, especially on the level of marinating, canning, and
the use of additives (Verbeke, Prez-Cueto, de Barcellos, Krystallis,
& Grunert, 2010). Also, intensive high-pressure processing of beefbased meals leads to depreciation of quality, except for those
consumers who are convenience-driven or uninvolved (Sorenson
et al., 2011).
In Europe, consumers still tend to allocate more trust to butchers advice than to anonymous supermarket alternatives (Grunert,
2006; Krystallis et al., 2007). The importance of such advice has been
demonstrated for several fresh meats and meat products

F. Leroy, F. Degreef/Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

(Font-i-Furnols & Guerrero, 2014), such as dry-cured ham (Resano,


Prez-Cueto, Sanjun et al., 2011). In response to this trend, butcher
shops have been established inside supermarket areas, as to maintain a certain degree of personal contact. Such reassurance of
consumers has important repercussions on purchase behaviour, since
it decreases their perceived risk in the purchase of an unsatisfactory product. Delegating the purchase decision to an expert, in casu
a butcher, can in principle also be considered as a layer of convenience (Font-i-Furnols & Guerrero, 2014), as not all of the consumers
can easily distinguish between low-quality and high-quality meats
(Krystallis et al., 2007).
Added value: nutritional qualities
Convenience foods have often been challenged on nutritional
grounds (Botonaki & Mattas, 2010; Santarelli et al., 2010), although links between ready-to-eat meals and nutritional disorders
such as obesity are not always that well documented (Celnik et al.,
2012). Too high levels of convenience-driven processing may thus
create conicts with the demand for health attributes (Ahmad &
Anders, 2012). Adding functional compounds to or removing supposedly harmful ones from meat products may be perceived by some
as a way to partially bypass the cumbersome elaboration of healthy
and balanced meals. In other words, attempts to conveniently introduce the notion of dietary balance into meat products seem
to have market potential.
The reduction of fat, cholesterol, and sodium are the most prominent examples of this process (Chamorro et al., 2012). Although
fat reduction may negatively affect the aura of traditional food types,
it is at the same time considered as a rather acceptable innovation
(Vanhonacker et al., 2013). Another example of nutritional innovation includes the addition of bres or probiotics to meat products,
although usefulness of the concept is debateable (De Vuyst, Falony,
& Leroy, 2008; Decker & Park, 2010).
The validity of nutritional interventions may nevertheless be
context-dependent, stressing once more the importance of familiarity, as functional meat products have not been universally a great
success. In Mediterranean countries, for instance, a large number
of consumers remain unconvinced and not willing to compromise
sensory quality for health (Chamorro et al., 2012; Font-i-Furnols &
Guerrero, 2014). Likewise, a considerable subpopulation of Canadian consumers rejects the use of ground chicken as a beef substitute
because it is considered tasteless, despite its positioning as a supposedly healthier alternative (Martnez Michel et al., 2011). From
a Norwegian study it was found that non-traditional consumers are
open to salt reduction in dry-cured ham, whereas more conservative consumers express preference for the habitual high salt levels
(Hersleth, Lengard, Verbeke, Guerrero, & Ns, 2011).
Conclusions
Convenience of meat and meat products is a concept dating back
at least to Antiquity, mostly under the form of (commercial) availability and outsourced preparation by cooks, even as fast food. Its
importance was boosted during the 19th century, in parallel with
the development of large slaughterhouses, increased logistic capacities, and stability-enhancing technologies, including canning,
refrigeration, and freezing. The 20th century was characterised by
a further development and globalisation of meat convenience, culminating in the emergence of a worldwide fast food culture. Yet this
has brought about important consumer concerns that persist until
the present day, especially on the level of health and ethics, with
consequent technological and societal implications and a need for
innovation. The fact that convenience needs to be generated in a
broad framework of cultural, economic, public health, and
sustainability constraints leads to severe complications.

45

References
Ahmad, W., & Anders, S. (2012). The value of brand and convenience attributes in
highly processed food products. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 60,
113133.
Alcock, J. P. (2006). Food in the ancient world. Westport, USA: Greenwood Press.
Barbut, S. (2012). Convenience breaded poultry meat products. New developments.
Trends in Food Science and Technology, 26, 1420.
Belasco, W. (2008). Food. The key concepts. Oxford: Berg.
Bernus, A., Ripoll, G., & Panea, B. (2012). Consumer segmentation based on
convenience orientation and attitudes towards quality attributes of lamb meat.
Food Quality and Preference, 26, 211220.
Botonaki, A., & Mattas, K. (2010). Revealing the values behind convenience food
consumption. Appetite, 55, 629638.
Buckley, M., Cowan, C., & McCarthy, M. (2007). The convenience food market in Great
Britain. Convenience food lifestyle (CFL) segments. Appetite, 49, 600617.
Burkert, W., Girard, R., & Smith, J. Z. (1987). Violent origins. Ritual killing and cultural
formation. Stanford, USA: Stanford University Press.
Cayot, N. (2007). Sensory quality of traditional foods. Food Chemistry, 102,
445453.
Celnik, D., Gillespie, L., & Lean, M. E. J. (2012). Time-scarcity, ready-meals, ill-health
and the obesity epidemic. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 27, 411.
Chamorro, A., Miranda, F. J., Rubio, S., & Valero, V. (2012). Innovations and trends
in meat consumption. An application of the Delphi method in Spain. Meat Science,
92, 816822.
Choe, J. Y., & Cho, M. S. (2011). Food neophobia and willingness to try non-traditional
foods for Koreans. Food Quality and Preference, 22, 671677.
de Boer, J., Hoek, A., & Elzerman, H. (2006). Social desirability. Consumer aspects.
In H. Aiking, J. de Boer, & J. M. Vereijken (Eds.), Sustainable protein production
and consumption. Pigs or peas? (pp. 99127). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer,
Environment and Policy.
de Boer, M., McCarthy, M., Cowan, C., & Ryan, I. (2004). The inuence of lifestyle
characteristics and beliefs about convenience food on the demand for convenience
foods in the Irish market. Food Quality and Preference, 15, 155165.
de Vries, J., & van der Woude, A. (1997). The rst modern economy. success, failure,
and perseverance of the Dutch economy (pp. 15001815). Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
De Vuyst, L., Falony, G., & Leroy, F. (2008). Probiotics in fermented sausages. Meat
Science, 80, 7578.
Decker, E. A., & Park, Y. (2010). Healthier meat products as functional foods. Meat
Science, 86, 4955.
Doan, A. R., & Chambers, E. (2012). Predicting success for new avors with information
known pre-launch. A avored snack food case study. Food Quality and Preference,
25, 116120.
Eilert, S. J. (2005). New packaging technologies for the 21st century. Meat Science,
71, 122127.
Ferrires, M. (2005). Sacred cow, mad cow. A history of food fears. New York, USA:
Columbia University Press.
Fiddes, N. (1991). Meat. A natural symbol. London, UK: Routledge.
Fischler, C. (1996). La Macdonaldisation des moeurs. In J.-C. Flandrin & M. Montarani
(Eds.), Histoire de lAlimentation (pp. 99127). Domont, France: Fayard.
Font-i-Furnols, M., & Guerrero, L. (2014). Consumer preference, behaviour and
perception about meat and meat products. An overview. Meat Science, 98,
361371.
Geyzen, A., Scholliers, P., & Leroy, F. (2012). Innovative traditions in swiftly
transforming foodscapes. An exploratory essay. Trends in Food Science and
Technology, 25, 4752.
Grunert, K. G. (2006). Future trends and consumer lifestyles with regard to meat
consumption. Meat Science, 74, 149160.
Hersleth, M., Lengard, V., Verbeke, W., Guerrero, L., & Ns, T. (2011). Consumers
acceptance of innovations in dry-cured ham. Impact of reduced salt
content, prolonged aging time and new origin. Food Quality and Preference, 22,
3141.
Iaccarino, T., Di Monaco, R., Mincione, A., Cavella, S., & Masi, P. (2006). Inuence of
information on origin and technology on the consumer response. The case of
soppressata salami. Food Quality and Preference, 17, 7684.
Jaffe, J., & Gertler, M. (2006). Victual vicissitudes. Consumer deskilling and the
(gendered) transformation of food systems. Agriculture and Human Values, 23,
143162.
Jang, J. D., & Lee, D. S. (2005). Development of a sous-vide packaging process for Korean
seasoned beef. Food Control, 16, 285291.
Jeyamkondan, S., Jayas, D. S., & Holley, R. A. (2000). Review of centralized packaging
systems for distribution of retail-ready meat. Journal of Food Protection, 63,
796804.
Kanatt, S. R., Rao, M. S., Chawla, S. P., & Sharma, A. (2010). Shelf-life extension of
convenience meat products sold in Indian supermarkets by radiation processing.
Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 79, 12591263.
Kiple, K. F. (2007). A movable feast. Ten millennia of food globalization. New York, USA:
Cambridge University Press.
Krystallis, A., Chryssochoidis, G., & Scholderer, J. (2007). Consumer-perceived quality
in traditional food chains. The case of the Greek meat supply chain. Appetite,
48, 5468.
Khne, B., Vanhonacker, F., Gellynck, X., & Verbeke, W. (2010). Innovation in traditional
food products in Europe. Do sector innovation activities match consumers
acceptance? Food Quality and Preference, 21, 629638.

46

F. Leroy, F. Degreef/Appetite 94 (2015) 4046

Leroy, F., Geyzen, A., Janssens, M., De Vuyst, L., & Scholliers, P. (2013). Meat
fermentation at the crossroads of innovation and tradition. A historical outlook.
Trends in Food Science and Technology, 31, 130137.
Martnez Michel, L., Punter, P. H., & Wismer, W. V. (2011). Perceptual attributes of
poultry and other meat products. A repertory grid application. Meat Science, 87,
349355.
Moss, M. (2013). Salt, sugar, fat. How the food giants hooked us. New York: USA:
Random House Publishing Group.
Naidu, A. S. (2000). Natural food antimicrobial systems. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Ogle, M. (2013). Meat we trust. An unexpected history of carnivore America. New York,
USA: Houghton-Miin-Harcourt.
Pilcher, J. (2005). Food in world history. London, UK: Routledge.
Quested, T. E., Cook, P. E., Gorris, L. G., & Cole, M. B. (2010). Trends in technology,
trade and consumption likely to impact on microbial food safety. International
Journal of Food Microbiology, 139, S29S42.
Ravyts, F., De Vuyst, L., & Leroy, F. (2012). Bacterial diversity and functionalities in
food fermentations. Engineering in Life Sciences, 12, 356367.
Renton, A. (2013). Planet carnivore. London, UK: Guardian Books.
Resano, H., Prez-Cueto, F. J. A., Sanjun, A. I., de Barcellos, M. D., Grunert, K. G., &
Verbeke, W. (2011). Consumer satisfaction with dry-cured ham in ve European
countries. Meat Science, 87, 336343.
Resano, H., Perez-Cueto, F. J., de Barcellos, M. D., Veen-Olsen, N., Grunert, K. G., &
Verbeke, W. (2011). Consumer satisfaction with pork meat and derived products
in ve European countries. Appetite, 56, 167170.
Santarelli, R. L., Vendeuvre, J. L., Naud, N., Tach, S., Guraud, F., Viau, M., et al. (2010).
Meat processing and colon carcinogenesis. Cooked, nitrite-treated, and oxidized
high-heme cured meat promotes mucin-depleted foci in rats. Cancer Prevention
Research, 3, 852864.
Saunier, P. (2012). Food production. Industrial processing begins to gain ground. In
M. Bruegel (Ed.), A cultural history of food. In the age of empire (pp. 2747). London,
UK: Berg Publisher.
Scheire, W. (2012). Geschiedschrijving van het evidente. Het verhaal van de koelkast.
Volkskunde (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2, 129151.

Segers, Y. (2012). Food systems in the Nineteenth Century. In M. Bruegel (Ed.), A


cultural history of food. In the age of empire (pp. 4968). London, UK: Berg
Publisher.
Sinclair, U. (1906). The jungle. New York, USA: Doubleday, Jabber & Company.
Smil, V. (2013). Should we eat meat? Evolution and consequences of modern carnivory.
Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Sorenson, D., Henchion, M., Marcos, B., Ward, P., Mullen, A. M., & Allen, P. (2011).
Consumer acceptance of high pressure processed beef-based chilled ready meals.
The mediating role of food-related lifestyle factors. Meat Science, 87, 8187.
Stanford, C. B., & Bunn, H. (2001). Meat-eating and human evolution. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.
Sun, X. D. (2009). Utilization of restructuring technology in the production of meat
products. A review. CyTA Journal of Food, 7, 153162.
Troy, D. J., & Kerry, J. P. (2010). Consumer perception and the role of science in the
meat industry. Meat Science, 86, 214226.
Van den Eeckhout, P., & Scholliers, P. (2012). The proliferation of brands. The case
of food in Belgium, 18901940. Enterprise & Society, 13(1), 5384.
Vanhonacker, F., Khne, B., Gellynck, X., Guerrero, L., Hersleth, M., & Verbeke, W.
(2013). Innovations in traditional foods. Impact on perceived traditional character
and consumer acceptance. Food Research International, 54, 18281835.
Vasilopoulos, C., De Mey, E., Dewulf, L., Paelinck, H., De Smedt, A., Vandendriessche,
F., et al. (2010). Interactions between bacterial isolates from modiedatmosphere-packaged artisan-type cooked ham in view of the development of
a bioprotective culture. Food Microbiology, 27, 10861094.
Vasilopoulos, C., De Vuyst, L., & Leroy, F. (2015). Shelf-life reduction as an emerging
problem in cooked hams underlines the need for improved preservation
strategies. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, doi:10.1080/
10408398.2012.695413; in press.
Verbeke, W., Prez-Cueto, F. J., de Barcellos, M. D., Krystallis, A., & Grunert, K. G. (2010).
European citizen and consumer attitudes and preferences regarding beef and
pork. Meat Science, 84, 284292.
Zhou, G. H., Xu, X. L., & Liu, Y. (2010). Preservation technologies for fresh meat. A
review. Meat Science, 86, 119128.

You might also like