In the last several months, I’ve noticed a few differences when buying beef, chicken and pork at my local grocery store. As I prepped these proteins for our meals there is an excessive amount of extra trim producers are leaving on for weight — more than the usual amount of skin and fat tucked neatly under the chicken thighs and into whole chickens or the extra fat and trim left on a rack of ribs. So, what’s the big deal? Well, in my opinion, it’s a rip-off.

Think about the scale of this issue. I wouldn’t be bringing this up if it was getting just a little out of hand. I know and have seen firsthand how fast processing lines go. I can accept there will be a certain percentage that can slip by given the time workers have to portion the piece they are responsible for. But I was trimming up a rack of St. Louis ribs and trimmed off 10 oz. of excess fat and trim beyond what I would keep on. At $3.75 / #, that’s $2.34 extra for something that is getting pitched.

We smoked a bone-in pork butt the other day; when I opened the package, I noticed this specific producer had left the skin-on. Again, not a big deal to remove, but it added an extra 8 oz. to the total weight. What pissed me off is the packaging from the manufacturer covered the portion of the butt with colored labeling to conceal that portion of the pork.

I know it’s been a tough year for everyone, and some companies are doing their best to hang on and make ends meet. I really do get that. However, with record protein sales during the last two quarters you kind of have to wonder about the obvious extra weight. My immediate default is that this is going slightly beyond human error.

I don’t feel it would add anything to the blog by naming which protein companies I experienced these issues with. They know who they are. I felt compelled to share my thoughts with you all because if this is a conscious effort on the meat companies to get over on the consumer, they need to know: We see what you're doing! And we’d all appreciate you rethinking this course of action. We are all still having a hard time making ends "meat" and would hate for company greed to get in the way of families affording their dinner.

My question to you all is two-fold: Have you experienced this yourself? Do you think this is human error or a new M.O. for some of the top protein producers pushing the limits to garner more revenue? Share your honest observations and thoughts.

Live well always …

Making the grade or just greed?

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