Centralized Processing of Fresh Meat for Retail Stores

Excerpts from the report: The meat department sales of retail food stores represented about one-fourth of the total annual food store sales of $54 billion in 1961. Handling costs in the meat department are more than 1/4 of total store expenses because of the extra refrigerated equipment, supplies, and labor required. At present, most supermarket companies are processing fresh meat at each individual store into retail cuts that are weighed, priced, and packaged, ready for sale from self-service refrigerated display cases. Starting in 1959, studies were made of firms in this country which were packaging and distributing retail cuts of fresh meat from central processing plants. Preliminary research shows that costs of central packaging of fresh meat can be reduced materially by better utilization of labor and by the use of more efficient machinery, equipment, and layout of processing lines. USDA researchers designed and installed improved operational procedures, inventory control systems, scheduling systems, and layouts in three central plants. Standard industrial engineering procedures and marketing research techniques were employed to develop and project operational systems which can be used in the design and operation of larger volume central meat plants. The objective of this report is to aid the food industry in evaluating central fresh meat processing operations, and to provide fundamental guidelines for those who plan to build such central plants.