GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. – Tyson Foods Inc. plans to revolutionize the beef industry the same way it changed the chicken business.
“We’re in the sales business, but we only sell your cattle one roast or one steak at a time,” said Ray Hankes, plant manager of the world’s largest case-ready meat packaging plant at Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
Selling uniformly sized steaks one package at a time is likely to force the fiercely independent beef industry to conform in ways it never expected.
Chilled primal cuts from midwestern slaughter plants are shipped in 2,000-pound boxes to the southeastern operation.
Read Also
VIDEO: British company Antler Bio brings epigenetics to dairy farms
British company Antler Bio is bringing epigenetics to dairy farms using blood tests help tie how management is meeting the genetic potential of the animals.
There, every steak, roast and package of hamburger is cut to fit plastic wrapped meat trays, which are shipped to major grocery stores in the eastern United States.
The grocers place the packages in their meat cases without ever touching a piece of raw meat.
The plant uses four different sized biodegradable plastic trays, depending on whether it is a single, double, triple or family-sized serving.
Almost every operation at the plant is automated and computer controlled.
Machines cut the meat.
When a full-sized loin moves down a conveyor belt, it passes through a slicing machine set to cut 12, 1.5 cm thick steaks. The cuts then move down the belt and workers trim away excess external fat before the steaks are placed in trays.
A machine then wraps the tray with a plastic film while another unit pumps in a modified atmosphere of 80 percent oxygen and 20 percent carbon dioxide to prevent discolouring. The closed packages are slightly bubbled on top.
Each package is then electronically labelled with a UPC symbol, product description, weight, cooking instructions, ingredient list, price, lot number, date of packaging and sell-by date. If there is a problem, the company can trace that package back to the plant.
Another product is cubed steak, similar to steakettes purchased in Canada.
It travels down a conveyer to a machine that pierces the meat with 280 tiny needles, giving it a waffled appearance. Quality control staff checks the finished product to ensure it does not fall apart and has no surface fat traces greater than the end of a pencil.
Water, rosemary oil and salt are added to make the steaks and roasts tender and easy to cook. The enhancement process retains moisture and helps the meat bloom to a bright red colour in the package.
“We have now taken that Select grade of steak and moved it up to make it a better overall eating experience,” said Tyson marketer Jason Robertson.
Select is a lower- to mid-level grade with more lean red meat and less marbling, and is roughly equivalent to the Canadian A to AA grade.
The Tyson plant only wants Select grade grain-fed beef.
Ground beef is the company’s best seller. Each 2,000 lb. container of grinding meat is sorted at the slaughter house into the required percentage of fat and red meat before it arrives at the plant.
Ground beef is not enhanced.
Every lot is tested for microbes. If results are positive, the load is not shipped.
Case-ready packaging demands consistency from beef producers. The trend toward larger carcasses is a problem.
Subprimal cuts, such as loins, won’t fit into bags and the sliced steaks won’t properly fit the tray.
Oversized steaks can be trimmed to fit the tray but it costs the company money.
“The meat fits into the tray,. but we just lost a quarter pound at $5 a lb.,” said Mona Melton, vice-president of Tyson’s fresh meat operations.
“Now it is reduced to a trim value that might be 30 cents a lb.”
Packing plants will accept larger carcasses, but much of it is directed into the export market because the cuts are handled differently.
Injection site bruising and abscesses are also a problem.
The bruise is not obvious until it is exposed to oxygen and appears as a dark spot on the meat within four to eight days.
