Did BSE Announcements Reduce Beef Purchases?

by Fred Kuchler and Abebayehu Tegene

This study examines consumers' retail purchases of beef and beef products for evidence of a response to the 2003 U.S. government announcements of finding cows infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). We constructed weekly estimates of quantities of beef products consumers purchased from 1998 through 2004 using ACNielsen Homescan data. While the variance in purchases was large, most could be explained by trend and seasonality. Deviations from established purchase patterns following the BSE announcements varied across beef products, but were limited to no more than 2 weeks in all cases.

Keywords: food safety, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, BSE, retail beef purchases, government announcements, retrospective analysis

In this publication...

• Entire Report
• Report summary
• Abstract, Acknowledgments, Contents, and Summary
• Introduction
• Using ACNielsen Homescan Panel Data To Track Weekly Beef Purchases
• Weekly Purchase Data Display Strong Seasonal Patterns
• Modeling Fresh Beef Purchases
• Modeling Frozen Beef Purchases
• Modeling Frankfurter Purchases
• Generalizing Results to Other Types of Food Safety News
• References
• Appendix