Case-ready meat, retail-ready meat, or pre-packaged meat refers to fresh meat that is processed and packaged at a central facility and delivered to the store ready to be put directly into the meat case.
Background
Traditionally, most meat was shipped as
primal cuts from the
slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
to the butcher. Meat was then cut to commonly used cuts and packaged at the store or was custom cut for consumers.
Case-ready meat is cut and packaged at central regional facilities and sent to retail stores ready for placement in refrigerated display cases. Local butchering, cutting, trimming, and overwrapping the meat at retail stores is greatly reduced.
Advantages of the centralized master-packager preparation include: efficiency of centralized operations, tight
quality control
Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements".
This approach places ...
, close control of sanitization, specialized packaging, etc.
Packaging
Centralized cutting and processing of meats has the potential of reducing the
shelf life of the cuts. Specialized packaging is needed to regain and even extend that shelf life.
Packaging includes tray, absorbent pad (
meat diaper), specialty
plastic films, etc.
Oxygen scavengers and
modified atmosphere packaging
Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package (commonly food packages, drugs, etc.) in order to improve the shelf life. The need for this technology for food arises from t ...
are used to keep the products visually appealing and consumer safe.
[ ]
Distribution
Control of temperature during the distribution
cold chain is critical to meat quality and safety.
See also
*
Food industry
The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditiona ...
*
Food science
*
Vacuum packaging
Vacuum packing is a method of packaging that removes air from the package prior to sealing. This method involves placing items in a plastic film package, removing air from inside and sealing the package. Shrink film is sometimes used to have a tig ...
*
Skin pack Skin pack, or skin packaging, is a type of carded packaging where a product (or products) is placed on a piece of paperboard or in trays, and a thin sheet of transparent plastic is placed over the product and paperboard or trays.
The printed pape ...
References
Further reading
* Robertson, G. L. (2013). ''Food Packaging: Principles & Practice''. CRC Press.
* Yam, K. L., ''Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology'', John Wiley & Sons, 2009,
* Harwell, Edward M., ''
Packaging and Displaying Meats in Self-Service Meat Markets'', United States Department of Agriculture. June 1953
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Meat
Packaging
Retail packaging