WHO:
The nation’s beef producers, their $1 beef checkoff and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a trade association for cattlemen and the marketing organization for the U.S. beef industry.
WHAT:
The Best New Beef Products Awards 2000 -- Four awards totaling $250,000 are being offered for great tasting retail and foodservice beef products that most effectively satisfy consumer and foodservice operator needs.
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The “best new retail beef product” and the “best new foodservice beef product” will receive $100,000 each.
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Two other awards of $25,000 each will be given to the “best new beef product marketed by a small company” (with under $10 million in annual total company sales for fiscal year 1999) and the “most innovative, commercially promising new beef product.”
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A “Grand Champion” will be selected from among the four winners.
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If no product qualifies for an award in a given category, no award will be given.
WHY:
The goal of the Best New Beef Products Awards 2000 is “to recognize and help build new, value added, beef products.”
WHEN & WHERE:
Completed entry forms must be mailed to Melissa Taylor, Best New Beef Products Awards 2000, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, 444 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1800, Chicago, Illinois, 60611 and must be received by February 29, 2000.
HOW:
Entry forms can be acquired by writing to Melissa Taylor, Best New Beef Products Awards 2000, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, 444 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1800, Chicago, IL, 60611, or by faxing a request to her at 312/670-9414. Official entry forms and rules can also be printed from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association website (http://www.beef.org/npcontest). Award entries will be judged by an independent Award Selection Committee comprised of food industry experts based on the following criteria:
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Tastes great
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Addresses consumers’ changing needs and/or foodservice operators’ productivity needs
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Is innovative in character and packaging (packaging and merchandising are effective in creating demand)
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Contains at least 33% beef
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Is branded
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Available and successful in retail or foodservice distribution and sales
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Food safety issues have been effectively addressed
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Is new (introduced into the market after January 1, 1998)
-- NCBA --
New product development programs are funded by the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board. This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.
This beef checkoff-funded effort is conducted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a trade association of America’s cattle ranchers and farmers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry. NCBA is producer-directed but consumer-focused, with offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C. |