Meat cutters work with animal carcasses, using tools such as knives, saws and grinders to prepare standard cuts of meat. They have taken over from traditional butchers, who once catered to specific customer requests. Meat cutting is monitored by health and safety inspectors to ensure safe labor practices.
Meat cutters work with large portions of slaughtered animal carcasses. They are typically responsible for butchering and breaking these large portions down into a variety of standard cuts of meat. Meat slicers can work in a retail store or in an industrial setting. They employ a variety of tools ranging from simple knives to large saws and grinders.
In the past, much of the meat processing carried out around the world was in the hands of butchers. Butchers typically operate out of small shops and generally handle all the steps in preparing an animal carcass for sale. They also often catered to specific customer requests for specialized cuts of meat or non-standard types of meat preparation. As the food industry has grown and as industrial methods have been applied to the process of slaughtering and preparing animals for sale, the number of butchers has dwindled.
Meat cutters do the same work that butchers once did, but their work is typically broken down into smaller tasks. A meat cutter working in a large processing facility, for example, may simply be responsible for breaking carcasses into large components. These pieces would then be processed at retail by other meat cutters, who would prepare ground beef, steaks and all other typical cuts of meat.
Some supermarkets have replaced butchers with meat cutters. In some cases, this is simply a matter of semantics, and the cutters handle all the custom meat-preparation duties that butchers once handled. In other cases, stores have moved to standardize on producing packaged meat for consumers, often in an effort to reduce costs. In these stores, a meat cutter would simply prepare a standard assortment of meat cuts from each large section of meat that came on sale.
The work of meat cutters is usually carefully monitored by health and safety inspectors. This oversight aims to minimize the risk of pathogens entering the food supply. Additionally, safety inspections at meat preparation facilities are important as the meat cutting industry is one where unsafe labor practices can cause very serious harm to employees.
A meat cutter spends a good part of his day working with sharp knives, powerful mechanical shredders and chainsaws. All these tools are safe, but require skilled and careful operation. A meat cutter should expect to be trained in the safe use of these tools and to wear a variety of protective clothing to minimize the risk of injury as a result of accidents or mistakes.
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