Are meat and poultry processing jobs becoming safer? The numbers seem to suggest they are.

It was a tight race to the final day, but after the clock ticked to Aug. 1, 2017, and voting ended, Smithfield Foods’ hometown plant — the Smithfield, Va., processing facility — stood as the winner of The National Provisioner’s 2017 Plant of the Year award.

With spare parts inventory, the real problem is that essentially all spare parts inventory stocking problems are really forecasting problems.

When it comes to the development and merchandising of meat and poultry, big is not necessarily better. As cut size increases, shoppers show greater interest in buying smaller portions.

When a workplace injury occurs, a company will look at the incident from every possible angle, determining what exactly went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. In the case of Brett Hanvey, he took it upon himself to design a better solution after suffering an injury of his own.

Is there a more natural way to clean wastewater? Poultry and beef processors are certainly trying, by experimenting with new technologies created by Mother Earth to treat wastewater and reduce their water footprints.

Even with resources focused on filling vacant positions, fully staffed processing facilities are becoming rarities.

The American Cured Meat Championships featured more than 650 entries this year, from some of the most renowned small meat processors in the country.

While sales opportunities are strong in the sector, processors seeking to grow activity will likely face a host of complex production requirements inherent to developing cooked, fried and smoked options. They include financial, technological and administrative issues.

The use of precise forming technologies can enable processors to more easily create high- quality meat, poultry and seafood selections while garnering greater operating efficiencies.