@article{McKendree:174446,
      recid = {174446},
      author = {McKendree, Melissa G.S. and Widmar, David and Widmar,  Nicole},
      title = {QUANTIFYING CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF LEAN FINELY TEXTURED  BEEF},
      address = {2014},
      number = {1240-2016-101617},
      series = {14-3},
      pages = {25},
      year = {2014},
      abstract = {Consumers today are increasingly interested in how their  food is produced, especially meat and livestock products.   The media sources consumers use for information on food  production and safety are changing, as evidenced by the  lean finely textured beef (LFTB) event in the spring of  2012.  Social media and online availability of information  are changing not only the mode of communication, but  rapidly increasing the speed of information and knowledge  exchange.  The objectives of this analysis are to quantify  the media stories surrounding LFTB and to characterize  consumers’ concern, knowledge and purchasing behavior about  LFTB.  Media counts were constructed using the LexisNexis  Academic Database using “All News English” and “Major World  Publications” sources.  The main peaks in the number of  media stories occurred the week of March 25th, two weeks  after the airing of an ABC News story that was widely  viewed to have been at the forefront of the LFTB debate in  2012.  However, LFTB stories continued beyond March 2012  and were still being published throughout the entire period  analyzed.  Of the eight topics investigated, consumer and  government were the most discussed topics in conjunction  with LFTB.  LFTB producers and meat processors topics  lagged behind other topics, potentially indicating a  reactive approach by these groups.  In order to better  understand consumers’ concerns, knowledge and perceptions  of LFTB a survey was conducted; most participants had heard  of “pink slime” (the name used in the media for LFTB) while  only about one-third had heard of LFTB.  Only 11% of  participants indicated they had purchased LFTB in the past  six months, however, 80% reported purchasing ground beef in  the past six months, leading to questions surrounding  consumers linking LFTB to ground beef.  Most participants  were not willing to purchase LFTB in the future.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/174446},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.174446},
}