• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:50 AM

As ground beef prices soar, fast food chains such as McDonalds, Wendy's/Arby's and Burger King are absorbing the cost but are promoting "margin friendly" menu items such as chicken and salads, Paul Ziobro reports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says prices for 90%- and 50%-lean beef are 14.4% and 31.6% higher, respectively, than last year.

Wendy's, for example, is focusing on promoting a new flavor of "boneless wings" and will launch premium salads later in the summer. Burger King is readying a limited-time bone-in pork ribs entrée. The price rise comes even as the National Cattlemen's Beef Council has launched a campaign focusing on health and nutrition, as Sarah Mahoney reports this morning in Marketing Daily.

Indeed, Ron Winslow reports in the Wall Street Journal that a new meta-study from the Harvard School of Public Health finds that steak, hamburgers and other non-processed cuts of meat are not linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Processed meats such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs -- with about four times the amount of salt -- are the true dietary culprits. The paper is published in the online edition of the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

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