Easy Fresh Cooking^®

Creating a More Efficient and Profitable Meat Case

In 2005, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, on behalf of the Beef Checkoff, teamed up with the National Pork Board and Yerecic Label to create Easy Fresh Cooking®. The Easy Fresh Cooking program is designed to provide customers with a better overall meat case experience. Easy Fresh Cooking is the next generation of Beef Made Easy®, a program introduced in 1999 by the Beef Checkoff program. The Beef Made Easy program was developed in cooperation with leading retailers and industry suppliers specifically for beef. The goal of the Beef Made Easy program was to help customers become more familiar with a wider variety of beef cuts by providing on-pack information and corresponding meat case point-of-sale (POS) materials. On-pack labels and POS materials included suggested cooking methods, recipe ideas and safe handling information. Meat associates implementing the program were able to arrange beef cuts in their meat case according to cooking method.

Beef Made Easy took the guess work out of the meat case for your customers and your associates, making beef easier to shop for and easier to stock. Over 10,000 stores nationwide have the Beef Made Easy program or a similar customized version of the program.

The new Easy Fresh Cooking program builds upon the success of Beef Made Easy and applies valuable information gained from the Protein Labeling Study.

The Protein Labeling Study started with a series of focus groups designed to better understand customers’ information needs at the meat case. This information was used to develop the Easy Fresh Cooking program. The new program was then tested by two retail partners in their stores. The results speak for themselves, as more and more retailers are implementing this newest generation of on-pack information for their customers.

In the current Easy Fresh Cooking program, participating retailers are provided with on-pack labels and other POS materials for the entire meat case. These materials allow retailers to arrange their meat cases in a customer-friendly way, leading to the sale of more varieties of meat and more total meat.

For more information on implementing Easy Fresh Cooking in your store, contact your 
Retail Marketing Manager or State Beef Council.