000268 Wal-Mart Will Test-Market Irradiated Beef

Washington - Retailing group Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will soon test market irradiated ground beef to determine if consumers want the product and, if so, how much of a premium they are willing to pay, a Wal-Mart executive said.

Federal government regulations allowing the sale of irradiated beef went into effect this week after the U.S. meat industry, consumer groups and food safety experts endorsed the treatment as an effective way to kill illness- causing bacteria.

Packages of the treated meat must be clearly labelled, under the new rules, so grocery shoppers know what they are buying.

Irradiation, which exposes uncooked ground beef to tiny amounts of electron beams or other radiant energy, is estimated to add two to six cents per pound to the production cost, according to USDA.

“We'll be testing that in the near-future,” Colby Horn, product manager for Wal-Mart's fast-growing chain of supercenter stores that carry groceries as well as other goods.

“Is that what the customer wants? We'll have the numbers soon to tell you,” he added. Horn made his remarks at the USDA's annual economic outlook conference.

Horn said that negotiations were still underway with Wal-Mart's beef suppliers to determine when the test marketing would begin, how the beef would be packaged and which stores would offer the product. No decision has yet been made about how much higher the irradiated beef will be priced, he said.

Likewise, Wal-Mart is closely watching the debate over genetically-modified foods, he said.

“If our customers want genetically modified products, they're going to get it. If they don't, they won't,” Horn said.

Wal-Mart, like other major U.S. grocery chains, currently has scores of snack foods, cereals, salad dressings and other products on its shelves that contain gene-spliced ingredients.

Several British and European food retailers have halted sales of foods containing altered soybeans, corn, potatoes and other crops, or are demanding that they carry special labels. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now weighing a request by consumer and environmental groups to require labels on genetically modified foods, a move staunchly opposed by three dozen American food and farm trade groups.

Horn said the American consumer would ultimately decide how much information retailers will provide about a particular food's production methods. At some point in the future, he said, a vast array of computerized data will be readily available about each package of meat -- including such things as the antibiotics and feed given to an animal before it was slaughtered.

“The question is going to be, what do customers want to know,” he said. “The customer is number one. Period.”

Wal-Mart's approach in retailing genetically-altered and irradiated foods is likely to influence other American grocery chains.

The company's supercenter stores, which devote about one- third of their 200,000 square feet to groceries, currently number 721, with an additional 165 to be built this year, Horn said. By 2005, Wal-Mart plans to double that number to 1,500 of the huge stores.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is also experimenting with what it calls “neighborhood market” grocery stores of 50,000 square feet that are designed to offer shoppers a fast way to fill their pantries and pick up pharmacy prescriptions. Six are now open, and another 14 will be constructed in 2000.

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