Various cuts of meat.
In the United States and some other countries, a meatpacking plant refers to a facility that packs animal meat for human consumption. In New Zealand, the same type of facility is called a freeze. Contrary to popular belief, animals are not slaughtered at a meatpacking plant. This facility exists solely to package and export meat.
A refrigerator.
Sheep, cattle, pigs, and other types of livestock are slaughtered in an abattoir, a warehouse-like building that may also be called an abattoir. The entire refrigeration industry has been around since the time of the first railway. The invention of the railway allowed farmers to send their herds to any slaughterhouse in a matter of days.
Also, a meatpacking plant was able to receive and distribute meat to the entire country with the help of the refrigerator car. In the United States, conditions inside the average refrigerator during the 1900s were extremely dangerous, leading author Upton Sinclair to write the classic book The Jungle. Many years later, during the 1930s and 1940s, workers were able to unite and form the United Packinghouse Workers of America. While meatpacking conditions have improved in the United States, modern technology has made this occupation as dangerous as ever. Human rights activists often protest the working environment inside packing plants, claiming that production takes precedence over safety.
A special halal meatpacking plant is required to produce meat prepared in accordance with Islamic law.
A kosher meatpacking plant, consumed by people of the Jewish faith, is a bit different from a normal packing plant. According to Jewish law, animals must be killed with a single cut to the throat area. This method allows an animal’s blood to drain slowly. Kosher animals are cut by trained people, although any cut that is too shallow or damaged in any way constitutes non-kosher meat. In this case, the meat is sold to people who are not of the Jewish faith.
After slaughtering the cattle, the resulting meat is sent to a slaughterhouse.
Likewise, halal meat, the meat consumed by people of the Islamic faith, is slaughtered in a different type of packaging. Halal meat must also be killed by cutting the jugular veins of an animal. There are many similarities between kosher meat and halal meat, although it is debatable whether the two types of meat can be interchanged. Although neither Muslims nor Jews can consume pork according to the rules of their religion, among other types of meat, pork is the most popular type of meat worldwide, although beef comes in second.