Table 2.

Respondents' general meat preferences and self-reported handling behavior.

Feelings regarding the use of antibiotics, vaccines, or other drugs on animals used for food after being given the definition of withdrawal period (n = 565)
Much better	Moderately better	Slightly better	About the same	Slightly worse	Moderately worse	Much worse	Mean response	Standard deviation
5%	9%	13%	51%	13%	4%	6%	3.927	1.328

How respondents who consume meat or have someone in the household who consumes meat thaw meat (Multiple selections permitted) (n = 550)
Method	Percentage of Respondents
In microwave	19%a
Submerged in cold water	23%a
Submerged in hot water	13%c
Left out on the counter	37%d
In the refrigerator	65%e
I do not thaw frozen meat	2%b
I don't know	2%b
Other	0%f

Ranking of importance of meat quality attributes, percentage of respondents who consumed meat (n = 538)1
	Rank from 1 (most important) to 5 (least important)					Mean	Standard Deviation	Mean Rank
Attribute	1	2	3	4	5
Texture	7%	16%	32%	25%	16%	3.28a	1.444	3
Color	10%	13%	18%	30%	26%	3.504b	1.292	4
Tenderness	20%	34%	21%	15%	7%	2.526c	1.180	2
Flavor	46%	23%	12%	9%	5%	2.004d	1.213	1
Shelf Life	14%	9%	13%	18%	42%	3.682e	1.468	5

^a-f Matching letters indicate the percentage of respondents were not statistically different at the <.05 level.

¹All attributes were statistically different at the P < .05 level, as determined by t-tests.