Brand Update 2020

A QUALITY
LEGACY
The father of the
brand’s
specifications
led with
conviction.
Industrywide change requires people with a special kind
of persistence.
It takes data and drive.
To launch the Certified Angus Beef ® brand, Bobby “Dr.
Bob” VanStavern was one such man.
brand, the meat scientist had the answers they were
searching for.
“I kept my research data in my bottom drawer,” he
recalled in 2019. “So I hauled out this packet of carcass
research data that tended to say what the specifications
should be.”
Bob believed it did,” says John Stika, the brand’s
president. “He believed that it did, and was persistent
in communicating it.”
He continued sharing the science for 25 years as a
consultant to the brand and his push for better beef
became the new watchword.
As a meat scientist in Extension outreach at The Ohio
State University, VanStavern consulted food business
leaders. He heard their calls for consistent, superior
beef, yet “lean” was the watchword of the late 1970s.
VanStavern didn’t buy it. His research showed why
consumers enjoy eating beef: taste.
When Mick Colvin and Fred Johnson approached him
on behalf of cattlemen forming the original Angus beef
Modest or higher marbling. Limits for maturity, yield,
marbling texture and lean color. The same specifications
the brand, its partners and consumers worldwide rely on
today for the best beef.
With VanStavern guiding its meat science, the first
Angus beef brand became the benchmark for quality.
“He presented the specifications for different audiences
and was told it didn’t hold the kind of credibility Dr.
Dr. Bob passed away in February 2020, leaving behind
his beloved family and a vast community of brand friends
who believe in the quality framework he established.
“You see Dr. Bob’s fingerprints every time we give the
Science Behind the Sizzle presentation and in every great
steak,” Stika says. “Our product quality and consistency
is a reflection of his career, of his impact on this brand
and across the industry.”
Dr. Bob VanStavern
Father of the specifications
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