DO HANDLING AND COOKING PRACTICES DETERMINE THE SELECTION OF IRRADIATED BEEF?

A censored negative binomial regression model was used to study the relationships between the selection of irradiated beef packages, the beef storage and cooking processes, and demographics. Data were collected using a supermarket simulation technique and an exit survey of a panel of Georgia consumers. The results showed that those shoppers who stored (refrigerated) ground beef packages before cooking or freezing were likely to choose more irradiated ground beef packages in a trip to supermarkets than were those who cooked or froze the products immediately. Shoppers making meat loaf and pan-frying ground beef, and grilling, roasting, and braising muscle forms (top round and rib eye steaks) were likely to choose more irradiated packages of ground and muscle forms of beef than non-irradiated packages. Female, married, educated, and employed shoppers were likely to choose more irradiated beef packages than were male, unmarried, less educated, and unemployed shoppers.