My future speciality. Technology of meat storage, preservation and processing

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish markets or may be self-employed.

An ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the domestication of livestock, butchers formed guilds in England as far back as 1272.

Butchers primarily serve as purveyors of cuts of meat, though many have branched out into chicken and fish, too. Butchers are at the end of the production: slaughtering and meat packing are still completed at off-site facilities. Butchers cut the provided meat into steaks and chops for retail sale as well as shape and tie roasts or make ground beef. Butchers serve the customer, selecting the meat or discussing the cut the customer would like, wrapping and then weighing the meat. They are also typically responsible for the displays in the cases and the preparation of any special cuts of special orders. If a butcher is in a grocery store, they may also be responsible for operations such as inventory management, record keeping and meat ordering.

Butchery is a traditional work. In the industrialized world, slaughterhouses use butchers to slaughter the animals, performing one or a few of the steps repeatedly as specialists on a semi-automated disassembly line. The steps include stunning (rendering the animal incapacitated), exsanguinations (severing the carotid or brachial arteries to facilitate blood removal), skinning (removing the hide or pelt) or scalding and dehairing (pork), evisceration (removing the viscera) and splitting (dividing the carcass in half longitudinally).

After the carcasses are chilled (unless " hot-boned"), primary butchery consists of selecting carcasses, sides, or quarters from which primal cuts can be produced with the minimum of wastage, separate the primal cuts from the carcasses using the appropriate tools and equipment following company procedures, trim primal cuts and prepare for secondary butchery or sale, and store cut meats. Secondary butchery involves boning and trimming primal cuts in preparation for sale. Historically, primary and secondary butchery were performed in the same establishment, but the advent of methods of preservation and low cost transportation has largely separated them.

It goes without saying that any potential butcher should not be squeamish about handling and preparing raw meat, dealing with carcasses, blood, and meat products. In addition, butchers will need to possess the following skills and qualities: safety-conscious approach, good practical butchery skills and hand-eye coordination, mental arithmetic skills, excellent personal hygiene and cleanliness, customer service skills, creativity and general awareness of how to present and display meat. In the rest of the world, where refrigeration is less common, these skills are required to sell the meat of slaughtered animals.

Butchers also often produce fresh and cooked meat products such as sausages, hams, pies, faggots, and black pudding. Despite a growing interest in quality meat and locally sourced produce, local high street butchers are in decline, facing competition from independent grocers, direct sales outlets (including farm shops, farmers markets and box schemes) and, overwhelmingly, supermarkets.

Some butchers sell their goods in specialized stores, commonly termed a butcher's shop. These shops may also sell related products, such as food preparation supplies, baked goods and grocery items. In the United States, butcher shops are becoming less common because of the increasing popularity of supermarkets. According to the Red Meat Industry Forum, only about 12% to 15% of beef, lamb, and pork is sold through traditional butchers. Remarkably, it is estimated that supermarkets account for up to 70% of total meat sales.

Today, many jurisdictions offer trade certifications for butchers. Some areas expect a three-year apprenticeship followed by the option of becoming a master butcher. This is a traditionally male-dominated industry, but you can certainly succeed as a female butcher. Recently, a shortage of butchers in France has brought about a revolution. Now, over one hundred women in the country are certified butchers.