02/01/1991

AU's Lean Ground Beef to be Tested in School Lunch Program

AUBURN, Ala.—AU Lean, the 91-percent fat free hamburger formulation developed by Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station researchers that is being test marketed by McDonalds' national fast-food restaurants, will now be tested in school lunch programs nationwide.

Developed by Auburn University meat scientists Dale Huffman and Russ Egbert, AU Lean was among four low-fat ground beef formulations selected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service for a pilot purchase in the National School Lunch Program. The formulation, which uses hydrolyzed vegetable protein and carrageenan (a seaweed derivative), yields a ground beef patty with less than 10 percent fat but with similar taste and texture qualities of higher-fat ground beef patties.

USDA announced a program last October aimed at finding a palatable low-fat ground beef patty in an effort to introduce lower-fat foods into the School Lunch Program. The AU Lean formulation will be provided by Becker Foods in Milwaukee, Wisc.

The selection of these four was made from 13 different proposals submitted by five companies. A total of 237,600 pounds of ground beef was purchased and will be placed in school lunchrooms throughout the nation as their need for ground beef arises. Each of the four formulations uses distinctly different recipes to reduce fat while retaining the taste and texture of lean ground beef.

Huffman and Egbert worked with Becker Foods on their proposal after they found out about USDA's plans through the National Live Stock and Meat Board, a major supporter of the research which resulted in the formulation of AU Lean.

AU Lean was developed to meet consumer demand for lower-fat ground beef products. Huffman noted that Americans consume about three billion pounds of ground beef a year and ground beef products constitute about 43 percent of all the beef consumed in the United States. According to Huffman, ground beef must comply with consumer demands in order to retain its popularity.

A spokeswoman for USDA said the program is motivated by the same incentive consumers and fast food chains such as McDonalds are responding to -- finding a healthful low-fat product that tastes good.

"We are pleased that the results of Experiment Station meat research have generated so much interest from so many sources," said Dr. Lowell T. Frobish, director of the Experiment Station. "But we are particularly excited that this research development may lead to a more healthful diet for America's youth."

Huffman noted that getting a good-tasting ground beef product into the schools may not only be a way to improve the health of America's youth, it can also benefit the meat industry. "We program these kids from the time they are little to either like meat or not like meat," he said. "If children get turned off, it's hard to get them back."

"We and the National Live Stock and Meat Board felt that the school lunch program was important for this very reason," he continued. "Let's give these kids healthful beef to eat."

USDA will test the products they have purchased during the remainder of this school year and evaluate them for acceptability and suitability for school lunchroom uses. Based on these evaluations of each product, they will establish specifications for schools to use as guidelines when they purchase ground beef patties for the 1991-92 school year.

Huffman and Egbert believe that AU Lean will stand up to the competition. They noted that it's formulation helps it retain just-cooked qualities and flavor longer than some traditional ground beef formulations.

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By:
Katie Smith