The reputation of the Irish as a nation of meat eaters has been reinforced by the latest research which showed that we ate £427 million worth of meat last year.
Irish retail meat sales figures released by An Bord Bia showed that beef was still the preferred choice of most Irish households and accounted for 32 per cent of total meat sales.
In all, Irish consumers ate 31,000 tonnes of beef weekly and this was worth £147 million in the supermarkets and butchers' shops in the State.
Lamb accounted for 15 per cent of retail meat sales with 15,000 tonnes of sales weekly worth £68 million.
Pork maintained a 29 per cent share of total sales worth £96 million at 28,000 tonnes weekly.
Bacon sales were estimated by the Taylor Nelson Sofres consumer panel, which carried out the research for the food board, at 24,000 tonnes a week, worth £116 million, a 24 per cent share of the total market.
The penetration level of meat into Irish households was found to be very high, running at 96 per cent of all homes buying meat at least once last year.
On average, the survey found, households purchased meat 53 times during the year and the average purchase weight over the 52 weeks came to 71 kgs.
Within the meat category pork had the highest penetration level at 96 per cent of homes, reflecting the Irish love of a good sausage.
Beef was purchased by 88 per cent of households, an average of 30 times during the year and the average purchase weight for the year came to 31 kg.
The purchase of rashers, which was included in the bacon category, showed that 94 per cent of Irish households purchased bacon at least once in the last year.
Lamb had the lowest penetration into Irish homes with 73 per cent of homes purchasing lamb at least once in the last year.
The average annual purchase rate for lamb was 18 kgs, well below other meats.