Farmscape for December 27, 2004  (Episode 1677)

The Manager of Canada Pork says a new nomenclature for pork cuts sold in Canada will bring benefits to both consumers of pork and producers of pork.

A new naming structure for pork cuts sold at retail, announced earlier this year, becomes mandatory January 1st.

Mary Ann Binnie says the new nomenclature shortens the cut names, makes the names more consistent with those of other species and more consistent anatomically and replaces the less palatable names.

Clip-Mary Ann Binnie-Canada Pork 

The benefit to the consumer is the fact that the names are more familiar.

A lot of people are familiar with the term "sirloin" so there is now a "pork sirloin" and this certainly helps them when they're shopping.

Also the names are shorter.

In the past we had "pork loin tenderloin end chop".

Now it's merely "pork sirloin chop".

It takes the cumbersome nature out of the naming and also, for the consumer, they might not want to be saying they're eating "pork shoulder butt".

It's now "pork shoulder blade".

The overall view was to keep this consumer friendly, meet the needs of the consumers and also streamline the names so that there is continuity across the country in the naming of the pork cuts.

For the consumer there are some changes.

The cuts are the same, it's just in the naming.

As for the pork industry, the benefits for the pork industry is that these names elevate the cuts in the minds of the consumer and, as such, that will definitely play out positively for the pork industry.

Binnie says many retailers have already made the switch but the new common pork names become enforceable across Canada January 1, 2005.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council