New Meat Plant Will Serve Giant Grocery Stores

A new 162,000-square-foot meat processing plant opened Oct. 21 in Camp Hill, Pa. The factory, off Lisburn Road, is owned by Ahold USA, which operates grocery store chains Giant, Martin’s and Stop & Shop, and is managed by Vantage Foods.

The plant will cut and package beef and pork products for distribution to Giant’s stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland and surrounding states, said Tracey Pawelski, Ahold’s vice president of external communications.

No animals will be slaughtered at the factory. The carcasses will be brought in from the company’s current suppliers, including Pennsylvania-based brands such as Hatfield and Berks as well as national companies such as Perdue and Smithfield, Pawelski said.

I found this old story after shopping at a Giant Food supermarket the other day. This particular store in Maryland rid itself of meat cutting several years ago. I suppose other stores in the chain (owned by Ahold) did the same. Instead, of cutting and packaging meat in store, it receives "case ready" retail cuts from the meat plant on a "just in time" basis.

There was very little "case ready" beef in the store that day. Instead, pounds and pounds of subprimal cuts (big chunks of meat cut from the 8 primals) wrapped in plastic, restaurant style. I think stores that retained their meat cutters will better serve their customers.

Likewise, I saw 10 pound bags of semi-frozen chicken leg quarters in Perdue packaging. This is not something I've seen before. I bought one and broke them down into thighs and drumsticks for the freezer.

I may go back and buy a subprimal of beef, perhaps from the chuck or sirloin. I can cut steaks and roasts, wrap and freeze them. But I'm more likely to visit local farmers' storefronts and buy from them.

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