The snacking sector is increasingly rich with opportunity for meat and poultry merchandisers.

The notice proposes updated Salmonella performance standards for raw ground beef and new performance standards for beef manufacturing trimmings for establishments that produce more than 50,000 pounds of these products per day.

Half the benefit of pre-marinated meat is consumers know what they are going to get: embedded taste and convenience. Processors are utilizing new technologies with injections and marinades, so everything tastes the same but with less sodium and sugar, and fewer food-safety concerns.

With increasing concerns about both food safety and the environment, there are pros and cons to using plastic packaging for fresh foods. Add to that consumer demand for convenience, and the question becomes even more complicated.

In 2018, there were 109 humane handling enforcement actions posted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) Web site.