Speak Out: New Names for Pork Chops, Boston Butts?

Will a Boston Butt by another name still smoke as succulently?

The popular BBQ cut of pork will soon have another name as the pork and beef industries are renaming hundreds of their products.

According to this Reuters article, many familiar cuts of beef and pork will soon be re-branded.

The USDA recently approved allowing pork and beef industries to update the Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards, which seeks to simplify cut names, reduce unappealing terms, eliminate redundancies and provide a unique name structure for meat cuts, according to Meat Track.

Goodbye, pork butts. Hello, Boston Roast.

Pork chops are getting several new names – porterhouse chops, ribeye chops, and New York chops – to help consumer distinguish the different varieties and their pricing.

According to the article, consumer research revealed that shoppers were having trouble choosing between different cuts of meat such as flatiron streak, round steak and the like and were leaving the cuts in the meat case.

The pork and beef industries are hoping that the new names will cause their products to fly off shelves, into your shopping cart and onto your grill.

The industries are dealing with a large amount of supply – pork and beef in commercial freezers are at record labels, according to the article, and reduced demand – since the wacky weather this year has backyard barbecuers wondering when it'll be safe to pull out the grill.

The new name changes are set to debut before the peak of summer. With the name change will come new labels for products and suggested cooking instructions.

What do you think of this idea? Do you ever get confused by names of cuts of meat? Is a standardization system necessary? Or should a pork butt stay a pork butt? Will this create more confusion or less?

Tell us in the comments!