{"id":32770,"date":"2025-06-28T13:08:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T13:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32770"},"modified":"2025-06-28T13:08:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T13:08:30","slug":"chicken-solidifies-its-dominance-of-the-us-food-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=32770","title":{"rendered":"chicken solidifies its dominance of the US food chain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=e473caec-5304-4a53-a1cb-51cd1b7a0806\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The US food industry is accelerating its shift to chicken amid a decades-long decline in beef consumption, as businesses from meatpackers to grocers to fast food restaurants cash in on a trend towards high-protein diets and low-cost meat.<\/p>\n<p>One of those businesses is Taco Bell, which despite being known for ground beef tacos, added a full line of crispy chicken dishes including strips and burritos to its menu this month.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the Mexican-inspired fast-food chain introduced chicken nuggets, which it said were an \u201cinstant sensation\u201d that \u201csold out nationwide in under a week\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsumer response has proven crispy chicken is a powerful growth engine for us,\u201d a Taco Bell spokesperson said. Now \u201cnearly 95 per cent\u201d of new dishes created in the Taco Bell\u2019s Test Kitchen featured chicken, they added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Taco Bell\u2019s new menu items were part of a \u201cbroader shift to add chicken to menus\u201d as market research showed cash-strapped consumers are limiting their spending to cheaper meats, said R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research for Placer.ai.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChicken has been a driving force,\u201d Hottovy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Chicken surpassed beef as the most popular meat in America in 2010, with the supply of broilers reaching a record high of 101 pounds per capita in 2024, according to the USDA.<\/p>\n<p>The National Chicken Council, a trade group that represents producers and processors, forecasts that per capita consumption will reach another record high of 104 pounds this year.<\/p>\n<p>Poultry is particularly popular with Gen Z and Millennials who \u201cover-index\u201d on ground turkey and chicken, while boomers and lower-income households over-index for ground beef and ground pork, according to a report by FMI, The Food Industry Association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the past, you said \u2018chicken\u2019 and people thought of a dry chicken breast,\u201d said Wesley Batista Filho, chief executive of JBS USA. \u201cThat\u2019s not the case anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gilberto Tomazoni, global chief executive of JBS, the world\u2019s largest meat producer, lists three reasons for the chicken boom: \u201c[it is] affordable, easier to prepare and healthier\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A package of fresh chicken cost an average of $6.79 at US grocery stores in 2024, up less than 1 per cent from the year before, compared with beef\u2019s 6 per cent increase to $12.03.<\/p>\n<p>Poultry has also benefited from a resurgent public interest in high-protein diets sparked by the popularity of injectable weight-loss drugs. Doctors advise patients taking GLP-1s to increase their protein intake to preserve their lean muscle mass as they lose weight. Consumers typically considered chicken the healthiest protein option, even when it was breaded and fried, said David Portalatin, a food industry analyst at market research firm Circana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere seems to almost be a competition to see how much protein we can actually pack in food,\u201d Portalatin said.<\/p>\n<p>The food sector noticed the success of upstart chicken-focused chains Raising Caines and Wingstop, which market research firm Circana ranked as among last year\u2019s best performing quick service restaurants.<\/p>\n<p>Their growth pushed competitors to find new ways to invest in chicken products, Portalatin said.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald\u2019s reintroduced chicken strips to its menu in May and launched a new version of its Big Mac with chicken fillets instead of the beef patties.<\/p>\n<p>Subway owner Roark Capital acquired the fast-food chain Dave\u2019s Hot Chicken in a $1bn deal, the tender focused restaurant said this month. <\/p>\n<p>Americans\u2019 shift towards chicken could not have come at a better time for both restaurants and meatpackers, whose margins are under pressure from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ffd23343-473a-448b-8de7-e509e04a7576\" data-trackable=\"link\">rising costs of beef production<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>JBS\u2019 North American beef business posed a $112.9mn operating loss amid a shortage of calves. Chicken accounted for 71 per cent of the earnings of Brazilian meatpacker JBS over the three months that ended in March, up from 57 per cent a year earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The boom has allowed JBS to cash in on cuts previous generations rarely ate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe leg quarters, the dark meats are really, really trendy right now,\u201d Batista said, adding that those cuts were \u201calmost a byproduct\u201d 15 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The same trends have also driven sales at drive-throughs. Taco Bell owner Yum Brands expanded its chicken offerings at its Pizza Hut chain this year, introducing chicken sausage as a pizza topping and new meal deals for its boneless wings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe category continues to be a major growth driver for our business\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009\u201d a Yum Brands spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsumers can\u2019t get enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Gregory Meyer in New York<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e473caec-5304-4a53-a1cb-51cd1b7a0806\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}