A large pet-food manufacturer currently uses pork meal as the main pro

Question

A large pet-food manufacturer currently uses pork meal as the main protein-supplying ingredient in its most popular dog food. In order to cut costs, the manufacturer plans to switch from pork meal to a mixture of equal amounts of this pork meal and of chicken meal, which currently costs 20 percent less per pound than pork meal.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the viability of the pet-food manufacturer’s plan?

(A) Dogs are proportionately more likely to experience allergic reactions from eating chicken meal than from eating pork meal.

(B) Because its market segment is rapidly becoming more competitive, the manufacturer will almost certainly have to lower the price per pound of its products to retain its market share.

(C) Chicken meal of the grade used for pet foods has a shorter shelf life than does the comparable grade of pork meal.

(D) If the proposed change is implemented, the resulting change in overall demand would cause the wholesale market price of chicken meal to rise.

(E) Chicken meal is more fuel-efficient for the manufacturer to process into pet food than is pork meal.

New CR problem from Ron Purewal

PyjamaScientist · Answer

A nice one by  Ron . Kudos to  Sarah  for posting it.

Got it correct in 02:12.

The question is to find an answer choice that questions the viability of the proposed plan. That means, we need an answer choice that makes the company's plan of replacing some portions of pork meal with the chicken meal  shady .

We are not concerned with whether that plan would be a success in the longer run. We need to access whether it would be a good cost-cutting measure as of now. So, though (A) and (B) sound tempting, they are not the correct choices.

Only  (D)  speaks on that. If the costs of the "chicken meal" will increase post this measure, the plan to cut the costs would fail. And thus, (D) is our answer. It took me longer than I expected because I mistook "chicken meal" for "new chicken dog food".

AndrewN · Answer

Wow, how great to see the Purewals active on the site again—I guess I am about a month behind. (Ron, I would like to think that my request to you in one of my posts played some small part in persuading you to return, but you need not spoil the mystery.) I am not sure whether an official analysis is forthcoming, so I will refrain from posting a full breakdown of the passage, question, and answer choices. I will say, however, that in order to cast doubt on the viability of any plan, a test-taker had better understand the plan in question. Here, the crux of the matter lies in the throwaway phrase in order to cut costs. Follow that thought, and one answer stands alone.

As someone who dabbles in question-writing, and as my signature suggests, I can be a harsh critic of questions by third parties. (I wrote a post just yesterday on a Quant question I found unsatisfactory by GMAT™ standards.) I would like to say that I enjoyed working through this one, which has the right (GMAT™-like) "feel" to it. Thank you for sharing, Sarah and Ron.

- Andrew

As someone who dabbles in question-writing, and as my signature suggests, I can be a harsh critic of questions by third parties. (I wrote a post just yesterday on a Quant question I found unsatisfactory by GMAT™ standards.) I would like to say that I enjoyed working through this one, which has the right (GMAT™-like) "feel" to it. Thank you for sharing, Sarah and Ron.

- Andrew

IanStewart · Answer

Welcome back, Ron! Great to see you again. I agree with AndrewN, this question feels more GMAT-like than most unofficial problems, and as AndrewN points out, the crucial thing to focus on in any of these "proposed plan" questions is the goal of the plan. We only care about cutting costs. Answer D is clearly a good answer here. I find C a bit more tempting than I'd like it to be, though. We're not generally concerned with the quality of chicken meal here, but we are concerned with costs. If, because of the shorter shelf life of chicken meal, the manufacturer needs to discard more pet food before it can be sold, and if the manufacturer wants to bring the same total amount of food to market, then its costs could increase after it starts using chicken meal. If D weren't there, I'd think C was a tenuous but acceptable answer, though it requires so many assumptions that I'd pick D without questioning it if this question appeared on a test.

dbcoupie123 · Answer

(D) If the proposed change is implemented, the resulting change in overall demand would cause the wholesale market price of chicken meal to rise.

but rise by how much? 1%, 20%? 50%? Sure, demand may increase the wholesale cost of chicken, but the argument is based on lowering cost. an small increase all the way up to <25% (1/.8) would still meet the company's plan of lowering the cost of the manufacture of dog food.

However, if the shelf life is shorter, then the risk of carrying spoilage increases, resulting in more chicken needed to replace it, and thereby increasing costs rather than saving costs (especially since demand cannot be 100% accurately determined, the amount food stored could vary, leading to potential spoilage if overstored)

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

A large pet-food manufacturer currently uses pork meal as the main pro

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

A large pet-food manufacturer currently uses pork meal as the main pro

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards