Rinse. Lather. Repeat: Australian Meat

Day three on the Australian adventure brought with it a spell of rainstorms and learning about meat packing.

Both sheep and cattle are processed here.

We checked out of the hotel in Melbourne and made our way to the Brooklyn Abattoir, which is owned by JBS. The facility kills and processes 5,000 head of sheep and 875 head of cattle daily. JBS is the largest meat processor in Australia and the Brooklyn Abattoir is a major packing facility in the southern hemisphere.

On our tour we were able to watch all facets of the slaughter and packing process for both species of ruminants. We moved from multiple buildings and rooms throughout the facility. At each entrance and exit we had to wash/disinfect our boots and hands. This was a very important step in preventing the spread of contaminants at the abattoir.

(Warning: some slaughter practices will be explained, so if you are leery of blood and guts skip down a few paragraphs.)

Some of the K-Staters after the tour.

Something that I found interesting was the "knock box" which is used for stunning cattle and bleeding them out. The knock box is a hydraulically operated machine that restrains cattle to be stunned. After being stunned the cattle are flipped 180 degrees, upside down and the throat is cut to help bleed them out. To me it seemed like an efficient and safe process to slaughter cattle, and it offers a humane death for the animals that go through the facility.  

Marketing materials for JBS beef.

The sheep kill floor was also pretty neat to see, as this is an industry that is not as prevalent in the United States. In all it takes between 15 to 20 minutes for each sheep to go from stunning to the chill room.

Both lamb and beef carcasses are chilled for 24 hours, typically at 0 degrees Celsius before they are cut into primals like steaks and chops. After being sliced and diced into various cuts of meat everything is vacuum packed, boxed and ready to ship. It generally takes 3 to 5 days for the finished product to reach supermarkets in Australia. However, the exported product typically takes 4.5 weeks to reach its destination, which takes up more than half of the 8 week shelf life.

Marketing value added products from the Brooklyn Abattoir is something that was new to the plant just two days before our visit. Some former beef chill and boning rooms were retrofitted to handle a value added processing line that was brought in from a Tasmanian JBS plant. The value added line automatically cuts various types of meats into more consumer friendly products. During the value added process there are various labels and ingredients included with the product to help catch the consumers attention and simplify cooking.

The largest packing company in Australia is JBS.

In all it was interesting to see the similarities between the US and Australian meat packing industries, but there were some differences because of cultural taste and international marketing. Now we can look forward to our next abattoir tour in Wagga Wagga with Cargill where they specialize strictly in beef processing.

Until we meet again, happy trails!