An Overview of Ground Beef at Retail and Foodservice

While the beef industry offers consumers many choices when it comes to items in the meat case or options on a menu, one beef product remains the overwhelming leader. From January through July of this year, Ground Beef products have comprised 49% of retail sales in the U.S. in terms of volume and 37% of dollars.¹ Consumers see Ground Beef as a versatile, affordable, and frequent meal option.  According to the Beef Checkoff-funded Consumer Beef Tracker, nearly 60% of consumers eat Ground Beef as an ingredient and over 50% consume a hamburger at least weekly.² There is no doubt shoppers demand a wide variety of options when it comes to food purchases, and Ground Beef rises to this challenge. Whether it is the form of the product, production-based claims, or the lean-to-fat ratio, Ground Beef allows consumers to choose products that fit their preference. 

In terms of lean-to-fat ratio, most Ground Beef volume sold at retail contains between 11-20% of fat, with 80-89% leanness. This leanness percentage comprised 42%, or 1.3 billion pounds, of all Ground Beef sold at retail so far this year.⁵ Other popular leanness percentages include 90% and greater (20% of all volume sold) and between 70-79% (20% of all volume sold).⁵ Packages that claim to be 100% lean, less than 69% lean, or is not labeled as a certain leanness on the package round out the market, comprising 535 million pounds or 18%.⁵ The market share for the various types of leanness have remained stable over the past few years, adjusting less than half of a percentage point year to year. 

Retail offers a variety of Ground Beef forms, including chubs, random weight trays, and pre-formed patties. Random weight trays are the most popular by a wide margin, totaling 1.3 billion pounds through July, or 89% of total retail Ground Beef volume sold.⁶ The second most popular form of Ground Beef are pre-formed patties, which are beneficial if consumers desire hamburgers and do not want to form the patties themselves. Pre-formed patties make up 10.8% of Ground Beef volume, totaling 162 million pounds from January through July.6 Chubs and non-specified forms make up the remaining 0.2% of volume sold.⁶ In addition to a variety of forms available to consumers, production-based claims are also offered.

Ground Beef offers a variety of production claims as well, such as grassfed, organic, antibiotic/hormone-free, or natural. Data indicates 8% of all Ground Beef volume sold at retail has at least one type of production claim associated with it, and some contain multiple claims. Even though this is a fraction of the overall market, most consumers can find a production claim that they desire in their Ground Beef products.⁷ The largest of these production-based claims are for naturally raised Ground Beef, which comprises 3.9% of all Ground Beef sold.⁷ The second largest production claim at retail is grassfed beef. This particular production method generates 2.6% of all volume sales at retail.⁷ Any additional production claims represent ranges from 1%-2% of the market. Conventionally raised Ground Beef is clearly the most popular product, but consumers can find almost any product to fit their dietary needs or preferences.⁷ To read and learn more about beef production claims at retail, please visit this article.

Although mostly referred to as an all-encompassing “Ground Beef”, there are various primals from which Ground Beef products are derived. Chuck, round, and sirloin are the three main types of Ground Beef found at retail; however, the majority of Ground Beef sold is not labeled as from a specific primal. Roughly 71-72% of all Ground Beef sold at retail does not claim to have derived from a specific primal.⁸ For the products that do specify primal derivation, one thing is clear: ground chuck is the overwhelming favorite of consumers. Ground chuck represents roughly 20% of the Ground Beef market, bringing in close to $2.4 billion dollars in 2020.⁹ Other products, although not quite as popular as ground chuck, are ground sirloin and ground round. These two products generate around 4% of retail Ground Beef sales, or $500-$600 million dollars per year.⁹

At both retail and foodservice, consumers can find a variety of beef products, including Ground Beef with various claims associated with it. Whether shoppers are looking for lean Ground Beef at retail, or at a restaurant craving a breed-specific cheeseburger, the beef industry and cattle farmers and ranchers cater to consumer desires and provides products to satisfy their needs.