New Cooking Temp Ensures Tasty Pork Chops

To get more consumers to grill fresh pork this spring, the National Pork Board is recommending a new cooking temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit as a key part of its new seasonal promotion.

“Chop Fest” employs photos and recipes featuring grilled pork chops to inspire shoppers to buy and grill fresh pork through June. Additional materials include a “145°F is Perfect” message to remind consumers to cook fresh pork at the new temperature, followed by a three-minute rest time, for moist, juicy, safe results.

A sizzling, perfectly seared pork chop image is featured on various point-of-sale elements, among them posters, meat case signs, recipe brochures and coupons for fresh pork purchases. Consumers can scan a quick response (QR) code on the posters to link to the Pork.Be Inspired website where they can download recipes and cooking tips.

“We developed the Chop Fest promotion to position pork chops cooked to 145 degrees Fahrenheit as a juicy, delicious option for spring grilling,” noted Patrick Fleming, director of retailer marketing for the Des Moines, Iowa-based National Pork Board, which has responsibility for checkoff-funded research, promotion and consumer information projects, and for communicating with pork producers and the public. “The appealing in-store materials help our retailers keep consumers focused on fresh pork to ensure strong chop sales during the spring timeframe.”

Pork chops are traditionally big sellers in the spring. During the second quarter of 2011, the boneless top loin chop was the fresh pork cut with the highest sales volume in the United States, at just under 49 million pounds sold.