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Burgermeister


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Does anyone here still use soakers?
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Have you used soakers? Do you still use them? Does anyone here not know what they are?

 



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apcowboy


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O you mean " meat sanitary napkins"?? Well don't know about anywhere but here in the south but they still using them here. Have ya'll quit using them out there ??????



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Burgermeister


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apcowboy wrote:

O you mean " meat sanitary napkins"?? Well don't know about anywhere but here in the south but they still using them here. Have ya'll quit using them out there ??????

They aren't necessary where I work because it's 100% full service with no Styrofoam trays, but in other markets, the big chains such as Safeway, Lucky, Nob Hill, they aren't used at all. I work there on days off sometimes, so I know.

They aren't allowed. Not even in boneless roasts or fish. Nothing.

Pre packed chicken comes that way, but there are no soakers laying around for people to put in trays with any meat. It's been this way for about 10 years.



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JimmyMac


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I go through fistfuls and fistfuls of soakers everyday for the fussy styro-foam trays. They are a pain in the picnic.

I much more enjoy loading my cuts onto servicecase trays lined with peach/black paper.



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Nate


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There is a foam tray out there built into it, we did a trial on them probably a yr ago, but the cost is significantly higher. Anybody out there use them? Or the "xtend" pad that releases co2...

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Mainemeatman


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the charcoal or black foam trays are quite popular up this way, and most are using the black pads....not as much white anymore,,,the black pads dont show the seepage of blood as much




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J-Mansell


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I use them everyday. Black/White and we also line the bottom of the self serve with soaker liner roll its like a diaper for the case.


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Burgermeister


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J-Mansell wrote:

I use them everyday. Black/White and we also line the bottom of the self serve with soaker liner roll its like a diaper for the case.

 Those case liners are great! Can you believe they disallowed them at the place where I used to work? They are such a labor saver. I can't figure out why anyone would not allow that item. Is it unsanitary or something? I don't see a problem if you replace it frequently.



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Mainemeatman


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I like the case liners too- roll it under the grates and on the pans....this would save hours deep cleaning/spraying the case every week

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kbraker510


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We use bothe soakers and caseliners. in fact for the higher end items we employ the soakers with the sensor in them in the event of someone stealing, which we have a pretty bad problem with.

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Oh yeah I use them. In fact I had been kind of pissed because I had to remind the girl responsible for ordering them to not forget to order them for last wednesday because I was almost out and guess what.  She forgot.  Now I am trying to stretch them out til next week.  When she gets in tomorrow i am going to ask her if she did that just piss me off.  



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Burgermeister wrote:
apcowboy wrote:

O you mean " meat sanitary napkins"?? Well don't know about anywhere but here in the south but they still using them here. Have ya'll quit using them out there ??????

They aren't necessary where I work because it's 100% full service with no Styrofoam trays, but in other markets, the big chains such as Safeway, Lucky, Nob Hill, they aren't used at all. I work there on days off sometimes, so I know.

They aren't allowed. Not even in boneless roasts or fish. Nothing.

Pre packed chicken comes that way, but there are no soakers laying around for people to put in trays with any meat. It's been this way for about 10 years.

 To me that is just mind boggling. Doesn't that make their meat packages really messy?  I had been thinking about putting them in my grind trays just to keep them a little nicer.  One big pet peeve of mine is meat packages with juice filling the bottom of the tray,.



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Sunday


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We use them up here at Safeway, the Sobeys I worked at even used the sensor soakers that set off an alarm at the front of the store if it is not de -activated at the till. The cost per case is crazy at $142.00. Really no point cause people just remove the meat from the package and put it in their pocket, leave the tray and soaker sensor on a shelf somewhere. The people that come up with this stuff should work in the real world for a while, I guess they have to justify their jobs somehow! LOL

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DonnyC


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Re Does anyone still use soakers.
In the store I work in they are a big part of our, fresh meat case operation. No bloody packages are allowed. We use anywhere from 2 to 4 soakers in our packaging, and cull the case constantly pulling any bloody and messy packages.
Question, if you don't use soakers in your, packaged meats how do you keep your products from getting bloody and messy?

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Burgermeister


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fdarn wrote:

 

 To me that is just mind boggling. Doesn't that make their meat packages really messy?  I had been thinking about putting them in my grind trays just to keep them a little nicer.  One big pet peeve of mine is meat packages with juice filling the bottom of the tray,.

Not as messy as you might think. We thought it was the end of the world or something when we received news of no more soakers. But it's not that bad.

I remember using double soakers in some things and "diaper wrapping" the boneless beef roasts. That's when you wrap the roast separately with a soaker, but no tray. Then you put the wrapped roast in the tray and wrap it again.



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Burgermeister


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DonnyC wrote:


 Question, if you don't use soakers in your, packaged meats how do you keep your products from getting bloody and messy?

 Fortunately, it's not an issue now (for me) because we have no trays. We're 100% full service and wrap everything in paper the moment we sell it. Sometimes a bag and then paper. We have tons of help. The owners provide all the labor we need to run a full service counter properly. It's a great place to work.



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Mainemeatman


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food for thought

if you dont use soakers, be sure that your foam trays are in your cooler or freezer

why??

some places have their trays, out in the back room, or worse, the compressor room,,,
if you do and go grab some WARM trays, that are well over 60 degrees, 80 degrees in the summer,,,and then placing cold meat (steaks) in a warm trays,,and it will bleed quickly

even consider placing your cutting bench in the cooler overnight, if a big temp difference between cooler and processing room

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Mainemeatman wrote:

food for thought

if you dont use soakers, be sure that your foam trays are in your cooler or freezer

why??

some places have their trays, out in the back room, or worse, the compressor room,,,
if you do and go grab some WARM trays, that are well over 60 degrees, 80 degrees in the summer,,,and then placing cold meat (steaks) in a warm trays,,and it will bleed quickly

even consider placing your cutting bench in the cooler overnight, if a big temp difference between cooler and processing room

 wow that never occurred to me.  we are a small shop we have all our supplies stored in the attic and it gets 100 degrees up ther ein the summer.  that explains alot. 



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Burgermeister


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Mainemeatman wrote:

food for thought

if you dont use soakers, be sure that your foam trays are in your cooler or freezer

why??

some places have their trays, out in the back room, or worse, the compressor room,,,
if you do and go grab some WARM trays, that are well over 60 degrees, 80 degrees in the summer,,,and then placing cold meat (steaks) in a warm trays,,and it will bleed quickly

even consider placing your cutting bench in the cooler overnight, if a big temp difference between cooler and processing room

 Most places I've worked at have a large supply of trays in the cutting room above the tables/blocks. You fill it up each night or throughout the day as needed. There is a larger amount of trays in another location where it might be quite warm, but I'd think the trays in the cutting room would be just fine.



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Lady Filet Mignon


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then placing cold meat (steaks) in a warm trays,,and it will bleed quickly

that makes sense, I'm going to past that on to my market co workers because ours are out back and up over the market where it's hot



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Mimeatguy


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Wow this is a brain twister to me!! Really no soakers??  Are you kidding me? Man I hate friggin rewraps and they cost money and time which of coarse is more money. Nothing pi$$e$ a customer off more than picking up a package of meat and get blood, water, liquid or whatever all over their hands. If anything we're increasing soaker use to save on rewraps! On rolled roast we put two or three in tray then another under tray. The soaker under tray is a big help as the blood seems to want to follow the film to the bottom of tray whrere the film is sealed. Sometimes the package will still get bloody for this reason and soakers inside pkg will only be half full.  BM I like your idea of the diaper wrap. I've seen that done before but not with the second wrap in the tray that's awesome idea we started doing that yesterday!



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Burgermeister


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RE: Does anyone here still use soakers?
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Mainemeatman wrote:

food for thought

if you dont use soakers, be sure that your foam trays are in your cooler or freezer

why??

some places have their trays, out in the back room, or worse, the compressor room,,,
if you do and go grab some WARM trays, that are well over 60 degrees, 80 degrees in the summer,,,and then placing cold meat (steaks) in a warm trays,,and it will bleed quickly

even consider placing your cutting bench in the cooler overnight, if a big temp difference between cooler and processing room

As long as we're talking about temperature control, there's one thing I've always done that I don't see any other people doing. When I talk about it, people agree it's a good idea, but they still rather not do it.

It's when you have a rack of cut meat that will be wrapped the next day, you might cover the rack with a "body bag". A giant plastic bag. Almost always people will cover the rack in the relatively warmer cutting room and then take it to the cooler. I think it traps warm air in the bag and it's better to take the rack into the cooler and cover it there. The temperature in the bag will be the same as the cooler. If you do it the other way, I don't know how long it will take the warm air in the bag to equalize with the temperature in the cooler. I've never done a test. I haven't proven anything. I just think it's a good idea to bag it in the cooler and not the cutting room.



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Mainemeatman


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pne of the best tools I ever bought was one of them laser/temp surface guns

now they are quite cheap, around 29.00, my first was around 150.00

I bought it because I could see a lot of minor bad habits contributing to shrink- it's one thing telling folks, its another showing,

I'd walk meat managers around departments showing surface temps, with this laser gun...quite interesting
we'd walk the case, and most items 2-4 high in the case would have a temp well over 40 degrees, then consider defrost cycles, where the meat is going to warm even higher
overfilling meatcases in the early part of the day, contributed greatly to shrink, as did leaving back up racks in the processing room
not the cooler, also you could quickly see if a fan is out or the honeycomb air vents are plugged, just by this laser gun.

years ago, someone was doing rewraps and and on the bottom of the steaks , it was much darker than the top-sometimes almost greenish- but then I watched a cutter grab some very warm trays from the back room and place some fresh cut steaks in= these trays were over 80 degrees warm, and it was common practice to do this with burger trays- which incurred alot of seepage quickly,,,leading to shrink.
many stores that have metal platters, now keep them in the cooler for the same reason.
once we started placing the foam trays in the cooler- he said it made a world of difference

anyways, if you dont have a temp gun,....see if your store will pay for one.
just on defrost cycles alone, its worth it,(see how much the fresh meats warm up),mosr refrigeated techs like 4 cycles a day at 40 minutes or longer, on a hot day, this can kill your red meat section

I push many places to go to three defrost cycles, two at night when the curtains are down- makes a huge difference!!


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Mimeatguy


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Yah our meat case absolutely KILLS us in the summer and it's not good the rest of the year either. We can't even get the owner to put the right bulbs in the case.  We have at LEAST 4-40's maybe more. The reefer guy told me the case was so old and ice up problems were such that it has to be that way. It's brutal. I'm not gonna be there that much longer so I won't waste my breath but it's a shame. Just keep them soakers comming Ha lol!



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Jan_ladycutter


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hate to do without them and with a three tier you got to have them plus a roll pad

off to do my Thanksgiving egg nog and get ready to cook



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