# What are the 2014 current standards for fresh meat sale in retail?



## drjones2k14 (Sep 4, 2014)

Many years back I remember fresh meat could not be sold if over 3 days old, current day made + 2 more days.

Is this still true?

If still true, what would the proper steps to take for reporting a retail chain to the USDA that it is avoiding this by rewrapping packages to make it appear the package contents were freshly processed.

Also for a meat department that only has 1 band saw, but cuts all its bone-in meats on it without cleaning between species.

Is this still a big no-no?

How about the pans used to hold the tray'd up fresh cut product, should they be free of old meat debris?

and the racks that hold those pans?

A manager for the company that is doing these things, presuming they are still not allowed, claims it does not have the payroll to cover such labor needs, such as proper sanitation or over worked managers and associates.


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## drjones2k14 (Sep 5, 2014)

It is in Florida, Palm Beach County, and at a membership only type company.

By 3 days, I mean once a product is 1st processed and put into a foam tray and wrapped, how long of a shelf life can it get?

Any meat product handled by a person there, not prepackaged/cryovac things but fresh cut steaks or pork chops for example.
They are posting 3 days out, current + 2 days, but also rewrap lots of 'wet' packages throughout the day.

If something needs to be rewrapped, shouldn't the date be kept the same as the original packaging and not extended another 1-2 days on the follow-up wrapping? which is what is taking place.

As for sanitation and cross contamination, pans, which are placed on racks to move out onto the sales floor, are used to hold the packages.

Pans have not been 'cleaned' properly at least for months, with heavy residue of past contamination present on top and bottom sides of all pans seen. On some single pans, if all residue were to be scraped off, it would fill a thimble! nasty.

The band saw is used to cut up anything hard, frozen, boney, and never cleaned between animal types.

The form of cleaning used for everything is degreaser and a hose, which obviously doesn't work well. I remember seeing some sort of attachment on the hose that would make the degreaser/sanitizer foam up, but not here.

I have even seen a grease trap hosed out onto the work floor, which then goes down the drain, and is a big no-no too if I remember correctly.

I am told that the lack of available labor and proper cleaning equipment/supplies is a big factor as to why, and this makes it an upper management/corporate mandated problem.

Everything described so far can be seen by anyone watching thru windows into the dept, observed from the customer side sales floor.

As for just 1 saw, I see 2 saws at a local supermarket chains many stores. 1 for beef and 1 for pork/lamb/veal. So why only 1 saw?


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