Each year, the NPD Group provides information called “Consumer Reported Eating Share Trends” (CREST). The report includes data that tracks beef servings in commercial restaurants. For the 12 months ending September, 2006, beef remained the most popular protein served in restaurants. Beef servings totaled 11.9 billion, compared to 10.1 billion servings of chicken. Beef servings over the 12-month time period increased by slightly more than 1 percent compared to the previous year, while chicken servings decreased slightly. The growth of beef servings was due to hand-held items such as burgers at +2.1%, and other beef sandwiches at +0.3% (SOURCE: Michael Melusky, NCBA Issues Update).