University of Idaho Hosts Albertsons Meat Cutters

May 8th and 9th, leaders from the University of Idaho hosted about 20 meat cutters during a workshop at the True West Beef plant in Jerome.  Phil Bass, associate professor of meat sciences, noted that most grocery stores don't see sides of beef, typically they receive beef in a vacuum packaged box; boneless ready to cut into steaks and roasts.

“It's incredible to see the growth that you get when you have one of these training type days where you're getting into areas that that you know, otherwise they might not get to experience," Bass said.  "But it again, it’s empowerment, it’s education, it’s growing their depth of knowledge of where their meats cuts are coming from on the carcass and etcetera.”

Participants Got To Tour The New True West Beef Plant in Jerome

Bass noted this workshop, which the U of I has hosted for the past eight years, allows Albertsons employees an opportunity to see and experience a more wholistic view of meat science, which helps the employees as well as customers.  It also allowed meat cutters to tour the True West Beef plant, which has been online for about two years.

“We did a tour that afternoon. We went back onto the floor, knife and hands and we cut sides of beef," Bass said.  "And so we broke it up into a couple different groups and put knife in hand and broke, broke some sides of beef right there on the floor, down to subprimal form.” 

U of I has also hosted workshops at CS Beef Packers in Kuna, the BYU-Idaho campus in Rexburg, and plan to host more workshops when the new Meat Science Innovation Center Honoring Ron Richard opens on the Moscow campus this fall.

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