Excitement for ground pork as another protein option for busy, budget-minded consumers continues to grow. Neal Hull, director of domestic market development with the National Pork Board said ground pork provides a blank canvas for cooks to experiment and expand their palates.
“What we’re trying to do is convince consumers that you’re used to using ground meat, just substitute in ground pork, so it works in any recipe. I think that’s one of the big things that we’re trying to get out there is as we get into that younger consumer that understands how to use ground meat, they don’t necessarily haven’t used ground pork and we’re just trying to give them permission to purchase.”
Hull says they worked with the retailers to showcase the versatility of ground pork by moving it next to other ground meats. Ground pork also works well for consumers looking for protein options for multicultural recipes.
“So that consumer has that option to choose, if I’m looking for something for ground, oh, here’s ground pork, I haven’t tried that before. And multicultural is going to be one of those areas that we really focused on because ground pork plays so well into that arena when you think about Asian inspired dishes and some of those things. So, multicultural is going to continue to be a huge focus for us going into 2023.”
As consumers plan holiday meals, Hull suggests giving ground pork a try.
“Probably everybody has that meatball recipe that’s their favorite and ground pork is one of those where you make, I will call it a basic meatball, and then you can have all kinds of different sauces giving consumers the idea and that permission to try it. We know that we’re getting into a younger household and we know that we’re getting into more households.”
A huge opportunity came out of the pandemic, when consumers started cooking more at home and that momentum of trying new things continues. NPB recently developed six new ground pork recipes to add to the already exhaustive list you can find online at pork.org.
