NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Providing information at the frontline of beef sales, the beef retail counter, is the goal of a new program launching Feb. 15 that will offer training to grocers and butchers about types and variety of beef cuts.

A partnership of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc. (NCBA), the national beef checkoff and Merck Animal Health, the online module “Better Beef Sales” is a two-hour interactive training and certification program developed to increase sales by providing grocers and retail beef sales employees with valuable knowledge of the meat.

Although beef boasts one of the largest varieties of products in the meat case, “consumers are saying they are confused,” said Kyle Pfeiffer, account manager of food chain affairs for Merck Animal Health, noting a series of purchaser insight surveys his company conducted to determine what consumers know – and don’t – about beef. “We need to better communicate and explain the choices of beef available, and take this to the retail level.”

Pfeiffer said Merck’s research showed consumers still “have a strong respect for the retail butcher, and expect them to have knowledge about beef.”

With changes in today’s highly advanced beef production industry, retailers may not have an understanding of the processes that go into raising beef, including pharmaceutical technologies and safety, producing organic, traditional or other types of beef and the work of cattle growers to protect animal health and the environment.

“The program is designed to teach retailers how safe, nutritious and delicious beef makes it from farm to fork,” said Melissa Tessitore, senior director of organizational communications with NCBA, the national trade association representing U.S. cattle producers.

She said based on feedback from beef retailers across the United States, NCBA heard a demand from butchers for additional knowledge they can share with shoppers. “Retailers are expressing a need for this program; they want more information,” she said.

Better Beef Sales offers six modules on topics including types of beef, animal welfare practices, sustainability of beef production and ways retailers can add value to the meat case. Each segment includes video interviews with experts from across the industry, such as ranchers and feedlot owners, as well as an activity and a quiz at the end to ensure learning comprehension. After taking the quiz, the trainee can download a series of talking points as a hands-on resource.

For more, visit www.beefretail.org