Food scares, advertising, and the demand for meat cuts in Great Britain

Abstract

Retail demand systems for 19 different cuts of meat for beef, lamb, pork, bacon and poultry in Great Britain are estimated from monthly time series of consumer expenditure from 1989–2000 using a two stage budget allocation process and an LA/AIDS specification. The unconditional expenditure, own and cross price elasticities are derived for the individual meat cuts. The impact of adverse publicity from meat scares, especially BSE, and of positive publicity through consumer promotion and advertising are incorporated into the modelling. Meat scares produced a reallocation of consumer spending from red to white meats during the 1990s. The impact of species-based advertising was shown to have complex spillover effects both within and between meat species, and the response of consumer demand to advertising was considerably less than to adverse publicity.