So in a couple of weeks or maybe less, the feds are enforcing a new policy involving meat grinding logs. I have read over the whole damn thing and it irritates the hell out of me. Its going to waste so much damn time of our day to follow through on that crap. I understand why but jesus. Any thoughts on the matter?
Could it be the pre pack industry wants to make it extremely difficult to grind at store level? To kill that part of the business and get it all for themselves? Did they bribe law makers to get this law passed? It's not about safety. It's about money. Maybe?
They started that a few years ago, but I guess its still getting to some areas. I remember when it first became an issue for me, I thought this is going to be a nightmare! How are we going to find the time? I assure you it turned out to be no big deal at all. I made and printed some easy to follow forms and just jotted the information down every time I did grinds. It took about a minute or less. I have been out of the trade for 3 years now but i will try to remember what I was recording. Remember they just want a means of tracking the grinds if there a recall or something of that nature.
DATE OF GRIND
TIME OF GRIND
BENCH TRIM? YES/NO If yes jot down weight of trim. You get good at estimating the weight in the lugger with out taking it to the scale.
PREGRIND TUBES ADDED? YES/NO if yes how many tubes/weight
Packing Plant for the tubes
Tracking number on the box of pregrind tubes.
Lean percentage of grind (73/27, 75/25, 80/20, 90/10, 93/7 whatever else your store carries)
Maybe you can explain this better for me. What is the difference between the Natural cut and Primal cut. I know what market trim is.
Also my biggest peeve is how we can't grind a customer request with an off the shelf item. We have to offer them to cut a fresh exact/or near exact sized piece, weigh it, show to customer then grind and log. That to me is a waste. What if we have plenty of chuck roasts(full on the shelf, backup in cooler) but a customer wants 2lbs roast ground? Its a waste to cut the whole damn thing just for a customer request.
Check these "past topics" out first boy going into the SEARCH: HOW SAVE IS YOUR GROUND BEEF REPLY PART I & Part II; also check out New USDA Ground Beef Traceability Rules
THESE ARE MY OPIONINGS
THIS IS TOTAL INSANITY!
This makes no sense to me what so ever: a new measure that will improve the agency's ability to determine the source of food-born illnesses linked to ground beef, stopping foodborne illness outbreaks sooner when they occur.
This statement was put out by USDA in 2014!!!!!!Once a major threat to the beef industry, the levels of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef have been on a historic decline since peaking in the mid-1990s. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), levels of E. coli infections today are less than half of what they were in 1996…
DID USDA REACH OUT TO FOOD RETAILERS IN FORMULATING THIS "NEW REDICULOUS RULING"?
THERE IS A LAW CALLED (THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION LAW) REGULATED BY (OMB) OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET. WAS USDA GIVEN THE APPROVAL TO ASSERTAIN MORE OR POSSIBLY DUPLICATE INFORMATION FROM RETAILERS??
WHERE IS THE ECONOMIC STUDY THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE ON LABOR COST INCREASES AT SUPERMARKET LEVEL? TO WHAT EXTENT WAS THAT DONE? WHAT ASSUMPTIONS WERE USED AS ECONOMIC PERAMITERS?
USDA USES THE WORD (LOTS). A LOT HAS TO BE WEIGHED.TO RECORD ALL OF THE LOTS WILL REQUIRE MORE WEIGHING OF GROUND BEEF MATERIAL THUS CAUSING MORE TIME AND LABOR. HOW CAN SUPERMARKETS RECOUP THESE ADDITIONAL COSTS?
A SMALL AMOUNT OF POTENTIAL HARMFUL BACTERIA COULD CONTAMINATE AN ENTIRE LOT OF GROUND BEEF: HOW DOES ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION OF INDIVIDUAL LOTS HELP USDA TO IMPROVE ITS ABILITY TO CONDUCT RECALLS?
DOSEN'T USDA KNOW THAT 150,000 ECOLI BACTERIA CAN FIT ON THE HEAD OF A PIN? AND WORST YET ECOLI-0157:h7 CAN ACCUMULATE AS MUCH AS 250,000 ON THE HEAD OF A PIN!!
AND IT ONLY TAKES 10 TO 50 OF THEM TO KILL A CHILD OR A GRANDMOTHER!!
WHAT THE USDA IS ASKING THE SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY TO DO IS FIND A NEEDLE IN A HAySTACK!!
In my opinion USDA should have started a consumer action educational program designed to educate the consumer that all they have to do to protect their families from any kind of bacteria is to cook the meat to its proper internal temperature. Instead they have applied a tremendous economic burden not only to the supermarket industry but to the beef packing industry as well.
If a shopper buys a dozen of eggs and eat them raw and gets salmonella poisoning is the supermarket liable for that?
If a shopper buys a pound of lean ground beef and makes the traditional dish called Steak tartare, and someone gets sick and dies. Is the supermarket liable for that?
If a shopper buys fresh rhubarb and eats the leaves and they will get very sick is the supermarket liable for that?
There are many more examples of foods sold in supermarkets that can make you very sick if not kill you but USDA has no interest in documentation. Why?
WHAT WE ARE WITNESSING IN MY OPINION IS COLABORATION. COLABORATION BETWEEN GOVERNMENT & PACKERS TO ELIMINATE STORE GROUND BEEF. AND I BELIEVE IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME.
WITH PREPACKAGED; GROUND CHICKEN, TURKEY, BUFFALO , GRASS FED BEEF, VEAL, AND LAMB.
-- Edited by Coalcracker on Saturday 4th of June 2016 09:44:31 PM
Im a fairly new meat cutter (6 months) but i was a meat clerk at a large grocery store for awhile and we always had to do our grind logs the way that they are asking us do to them now I just got an email on my meat shop desk today about this from my stores regional manager which is fine by me its the same way ive always done them he had to come down in person not long ago to enforce that we did them as the old cutter before me never did even one grind log in 5 years and nobody ever noticed it.
I too was upset when I first heard about this. Then my HACCP consultant explained it to me and I'm not so ticked off. If we track everything we grind as we go, if there is a positive for e-coli it takes it off our backs and puts it on my supplier where it probably should be.
I have heard through the grapevine that many of the grocery stores in my area plan to stop all grinding in store. That will help the business of those of us that are still grinding.
Also in a newsletter I got from USDA this has been pushed back indefinitely. This tells me the big grocers pushed back. Could be a mixed bag for us now.
__________________
I'm not a vegetarian, but have eaten many animals that were.
