Food Processing Industry

The food processing industry includes a vast variety of businesses that prepare fresh food for sale and manufacture prepared food products. This is a significant sector of the global food industry that includes agricultural, manufacturing, retail and distribution, research and development, and lobbying businesses; often a food processing company will be owned in whole or in part by a larger corporation that has its fingers in the rest of the pie as well.

Essentially, food processing is the preparation of food for sale. This does not include the washing of produce, which is typically done at the production end, but does include the peeling and slicing of carrots sold ready-to-cook—either fresh or frozen—as well as the canning of such carrots, the production of jars of carrot puree for baby food, the production of bottled or boxed carrot juice, the production of freeze-dried carrot snacks, and the production of jarred pasta primavera sauce using tomatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. Food processing includes the production of pet food and animal feed as well as the production of food for human consumption.

One of the oldest food processing businesses is the slaughterhouse, also known as the abattoir or (in the case of open-air slaughterhouses) shambles. In the slaughterhouse, food [Page 193]animals like cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry are received from the farm or feedlot, herded into holding pens, and then slaughtered and butchered. Typically, the animal is rendered unconscious—for instance, cattle are knocked out by electric shock before being hung upside down and exsanguinated (the carotid artery and jugular vein are severed, allowing the animal to rapidly bleed to death). Various parts are removed—in the case of cattle, the head, hide, feet, and internal organs—and examined for signs of disease. A government inspector then confirms that the carcass is safe for sale and some kind of antibacterial measure is taken, such as exposure to boiling water. These days, beef carcasses are typically “tenderized” after death with electrical shocks. Meat must be chilled quickly to inhibit bacterial growth and deterioration. The carcass is usually butchered into smaller pieces—the primals and subprimals, various muscle groups—depending on the needs of the customer. Slaughterhouses may also perform special procedures—for instance, they may follow kosher or halal procedures, or they may dry-age the beef, a process that is safer than the wet-aging used for supermarket beef and that results in stronger-flavored, more tender beef, but that is resource-intensive and tends to be reserved for special customers, such as steak houses. (Dry-aging is usually not performed at the slaughterhouse, but beef can be prepared for dry-aging as part of the slaughter process.)

By-products from slaughterhouses are sent to rendering plants, which may also take in expired meat from retail stores, dead animals from animal shelters, and restaurant discards. Rendering plants create a variety of products from animal products like bone, lard, and tallow. The end product, and whether it will be used in human food, determines the procedures used. For instance, finely chopped beef fat from a cow carcass can be heated in a centrifuge, which separates the liquid from the fat; the fat—beef tallow—can then be used for cooking purposes (it was once common to use it to fry French fries). Fats can also be processed for use in soap-making or for pet food. The solids left from rendering can be ground with bone to make animal feed.

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