Career Details :: Slaughterers and Meat Packers
Description
Work in slaughtering, meat packing, or wholesale establishments performing precision functions involving the preparation of meat. Work may include specialized slaughtering tasks, cutting standard or premium cuts of meat for marketing, making sausage, or wrapping meats.
Experience
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience may be helpful in these occupations, but usually is not needed. For example, a drywall installer might benefit from experience installing drywall, but an inexperienced person could still learn to be an installer with little difficulty.
Education
These occupations usually require a high school diploma and may require some vocational training or job-related course work. In some cases, an associate's or bachelor's degree could be needed.
Training
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees.
Tasks
- Severs jugular vein to drain blood and facilitate slaughtering.
- Slaughters animals in accordance with religious law and determines that carcasses meet specified religious standards when slaughtering is performed for religious purposes.
- Trims head meat and otherwise severs or removes parts of animals heads or skulls.
- Shackles hind legs of animals to raise them for slaughtering or skinning.
- Stuns animals prior to slaughtering.
- Saws, splits, or scribes slaughtered animals to reduce carcasses.
- Grinds meat into sausage.
- Cuts, trims, skins, sorts, and washes viscera of slaughtered animals to separate edible portions from offal.
- Removes bone and cuts meat into standard cuts to prepare meat for marketing.
- Slits open, eviscerates, and trims carcasses of slaughtered animals.
- Skins sections of animals or whole animals.
- Wraps dressed carcasses and/or meat cuts.
- Washes and/or shaves carcasses.
- Trims, cleans, and/or cures animal hides.
Related Careers
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
- Dishwashers
- Electrolytic Plating and Coating Machine Setters and Set-Up Operators, Metal and Plastic
- Farmworkers, Farm and Ranch Animals
- Foundry Mold and Coremakers
- Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers
- Packers and Packagers, Hand
- Solderers
Important Abilities
General Work Activities
- Handling and Moving Objects
- Performing General Physical Activities
- Controlling Machines and Processes
- Monitor Processes, Material, Surroundings
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
Important Skills
- Product Inspection
- Equipment Selection
- Operation and Control
- Information Organization
- Equipment Maintenance
Frequent Work Context
- Hazardous Situations
- Common Protective or Safety Attire
- Consequence of Error
- Using Hands on Objects, Tools, Controls
- Importance of Repeating Same Tasks
Institutions Offering Related Majors
No institutions found.