High School

Most employers prefer applicants who have a high school diploma and the potential to develop into managers. Subjects that will help high school students in this career include business and business math, bookkeeping, family and consumer science, and food preparation. Shop classes are also useful for helping students learn to handle and take care of tools and equipment. High school courses in agriculture, biology, chemistry, cooking, and other food-related classes may be useful.

Postsecondary Training

The majority of meatcutters and meatpacking workers acquire their skills on the job, many through apprentice programs. A few attend schools specializing in the trade, but they need additional training and experience before they can work as meatcutters. Prospective meatcutters applying for union jobs are required to complete an apprenticeship of two to three years before achieving full journeyworker status.

Trainees begin by doing odd jobs such as removing bones and fat from retail cuts. Gradually they are taught how to use power tools and equipment, how to prepare various cuts of meat, poultry, and fish, and how to make sausage and cure meats. Later they may learn such things as inventory control, meat buying, and recordkeeping. Those in an apprentice program must pass a meatcutting test at the end of their apprenticeship.

According to the American Meat Institute, some positions in the industry require extensive training and education. Many employees have undergraduate and graduate degrees in meat, animal, and food science. Others are experts in safety, sanitation, and industrial engineering.

Certification or Licensing

Depending on local laws, a health certificate may be required. Sanitation procedures are critical to food safety. According to the American Meat Institute, standardized sanitation procedures were required of all U.S. meat plants beginning in 1997. In addition, all meatcutters learn about Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), a food safety production system designed to prevent food safety problems during the production process (rather than to correct them after the fact). HACCP plans became mandatory for federally inspected U.S. meat and poultry plants beginning in 1998.  

Previous experience in a summer or part-time job, or as an apprentice, at a meat-packing plant will be useful for aspiring meatcutters and meat packers.

Important skills for this occupation are manual dexterity, good depth perception, color discrimination, and good hand-eye coordination. Above-average strength is needed to lift large, heavy sides of meat. Meatcutters who wait on customers need a pleasant personality, a neat appearance, and the ability to communicate effectively.

For meatpacking workers required to use sharp instruments such as knives, cleavers, and other blades, good eyesight and excellent depth perception are exceedingly important in order to avoid injury on the job. Manual dexterity is also important for those whose job is to cut the meat. Physical strength is an asset for those handling carcasses or other heavy materials.

Growing concern about the safety of meats has led employers to offer extensive training in food safety to employees. Meatpacking workers must be careful when handling and processing cuts of meat to avoid possible contamination. In addition, all meat processing workers follow the guidelines established by Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points.