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Stumbled on a stat about whole animal utilization that surprised me

I was reading through some old industry newsletters from the 1970s the other night, kind of just killing time after a long day of breaking down primals. I came across a little fact that said back then the average butcher shop was using close to 98% of a beef carcass, meaning almost nothing went to waste. That really caught me off guard because I hear a lot of talk today about nose to tail but I figure most shops I know are happy if they hit 80% or so. My own little operation here in Richmond does okay with rendering fat and selling bones for stock, but I know I toss more trim than I should. The article mentioned how wartime rationing had trained a whole generation to be thrifty with every scrap, and that habit just carried over into the 70s. It got me wondering if anyone here has tried tracking their own yield numbers more carefully, maybe to see where the biggest losses are happening.
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3 Comments
craig.olivia
Started tracking my trim last month and honestly it hurt to see how much fat I was tossing lol.
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alext52
alext5211d ago
Does anyone track what's getting thrown out compared to what you're selling?
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alext52
alext5211d ago
Started tracking my waste ratio last week and it was brutal seeing 20% of my meat go in the trash.
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