Federal and state governments operate inspection systems to help assure consumers of the wholesomeness and cleanliness of food products. Each major outbreak of human illness attributed to foodborne pathogens or to cancer-causing residues in foods raises questions as to the effectiveness of this...

The Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 called for the voluntary nutrition labeling of packaged fresh meats in retail stores. The stores had until mid-1994 to meet the Act's provisions. Availability and use of these labels in Louisiana retail stores were examined by a 1997 survey of...

The expansion of markets for crawfish outside the South Central United States is largely dependent on obtaining the support of grocery stores. Two hundred grocery store managers in each of the nine census divisions in the United States were interviewed by telephone to characterize the store,...

Consumer perceptions of the importance of nutritional labeling of fresh meats and knowledge of nutritional terms have been presented in the Journal of Food Distribution Research (Piedra, et al 1995). This article presents follow up information on consumer reported uses of nutritional labels on...

Growth of the franchise restaurant industry and merger activity among restaurants raise questions concerning concentration in the Louisiana restaurant industry. Firm employment data from the Louisiana Department of Labor for selected urban and rural parishes for 1975-86 and the concentration...

Product differentiation can consist of identifying the corporate firm that produces the product (such as Kraft) or the producer cooperative that produces the product (such as Ocean Spray). The Catfish Institute (funded by producers, feed mills and processors) was created to promote the generic...

A sample of Louisiana households was surveyed by mail to estimate their degree of support for compulsory country-of-origin labeling of fresh or frozen beef in grocery stores and restaurants. This potential requirement for grocery stores and restaurants was supported by 93 and 88 percent of...

A mail survey of 2,000 households in five major U.S. cities identified the most popular definitions of exotic meats, whether the consumers would taste test at their local food store a new exotic meat product having characteristics similar to beef, chicken or catfish, whether the consumer would...

A multinomial logit model was estimated and used to analyze consumer choice between the best retail meat cut from four species of alternative livestock or "none of these" (all with equal retail prices). The data source, a 1997 survey of Louisiana households, included buffalo, emu, ostrich, and...