Value Added Meat Processor
What will I be doing?
Value-Added Meat Processors use their skills to create a large variety of meat products from meat muscles and trimmings that add value and consumer interest in meats. They work with their hands and with machines to create meat products found behind the deli counter and on the shelves of retail establishments large and small. Following stringent food regulations and safety guidelines, this job requires the use of many meat processing machines and job duties including but not limited to:
Loading and operating various equipment including: sausage stuffer, silent cutter, tumbler, injector, slicer, dicer, grinder, mixer, scale, metal detector, tubs, net former, and smokehouses
Moving heavy tubs and directing smokehouse trucks
Stuff, hang, and unload sausage products
Slice, tumble, and prepare jerky for smoking
Injecting whole muscle meat cuts, and netting hams
What training do I need?
Enroll at one of Canada’s post secondary meat training programs to gain a meat cutting certificate; helping you move up more quickly in your career, but you can also get started in the industry just by seeking employment and training in meat processing establishments. Meat processors are trained to work with basic meat cuts and meat products to create value-added meat products for retail and wholesale markets.
Meat processors are trained to work with basic meat cuts and meat products to createvalue-added meat products for retail and wholesale markets.
What kind of salary and working conditions can I expect?
Depending on your level of experience, education and your provincial standards, Value-Added Meat Processers can typically earn up to $50,000 (est.) per year.
Value-Added Meat Processors can expect to work indoors, generally in temperature-controlled conditions ranging from minus two to four degrees Celsius. You’ll be on your feet most of your work day working with meat products and meat processing machines and hand tools such as knives in addition to other meat cutting machines to craft quality value added meat products for a variety of customers. Most Value-Added Meat Processors work in shifts.
What are my career options?
Value-Added Meat Processors are typically quite mobile within the meat processing sector, working different jobs within a variety of value-added departments. Having value-added processing experience will equip workers to move into industrial and retail meat cutting roles and can also benefit individuals looking to get involved with the distribution, inspection, value-added and management end of the meat processing sector.