A meat cutter prepares

primal cut A primal cut or cut of meat is a piece of meat initially separated from the carcass of an animal during butchering. Examples of primals include the round, loin, rib, and chuck for beef or the ham, loin, Boston butt, and picnic for pork. Differen ...

s into a variety of smaller cuts intended for sale in a

retail Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...

environment. The duties of a meat cutter largely overlap those of the

butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

, but butchers tend to specialize in pre-sale processing (reducing carcasses to primal cuts), whereas meat cutters further cut and process the primal cuts per individual customer request. The job title of "butcher" has been mostly replaced in corporate storefronts in the last two decades after customer trends showed that modern (particularly urban) customers increasingly associated the term with animal slaughter and unsanitary conditions (regardless of the condition of the store). With the advent of off-premises pre-packaged supermarket meat, many supermarkets now avoid mention of either cutting or butchering and simply call their meat cutters "Meat Department Associates" or similar. In the UK the term butcher is still used to describe a person, who offers for retail sale, meat ready for cooking by the customer. They will also prepare cuts, joints etc, for the customer. Most corporate retailers still use the term butcher for their meat department operatives.

Overview

A meat cutter is responsible to prepare standard cuts of meat (including

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, qu ...

and

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

) to be sold in either a self-serve or specialty counter. In the UK the term used for retail meat cutter, is still butcher. Retail meat cutters are found in a customer-oriented, retail environment. This can be anything from a small family-owned meat shop to a large international

supermarket chain A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...

. Meat cutters are a registered trade. Industrial meat cutters are found in production-oriented facilities, and generally perform fewer tasks, but repeatedly. The term "meat cutters" typically deal with "primal" cuts - segments of the carcass broken down into smaller (but still unfinished) pieces to make them easier to handle.

Working conditions

Retail meat cutters traditionally work indoors, in large, refrigerated rooms, with temperatures ranging between 2 and –4 degrees

Celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The d ...

. These environments are kept

sanitary Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

, and are washed every day with powerful antibacterial cleaners. In larger retail outlets or plant-facilities, working environments are generally equipped with power tools such as

band saw A bandsaw (also written band saw) is a power saw with a long, sharp blade consisting of a continuous band of toothed metal stretched between two or more wheels to cut material. They are used principally in woodworking, metalworking, and l ...

s and circular slicers. Meat cutters are also generally required to be in good physical shape; the duties of a meat cutter include standing for long periods of time, regularly lifting over 50 lbs, and working in cold conditions. Retail meat cutters also often have to deal with customers.

Duties

The duties of a retail meat cutter often include the trimming of

s, making

ground meat Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, includ ...

out of trimmings from the primal cuts, ensuring meat cuts are displayed in an eye-catching manner and are of sufficient quality, and serving customized orders to customers. Retail meat cutters are also responsible to keep their working areas clean, and ensure that proper sanitization procedures are followed.

Overview

Working conditions

Duties

See also