Meat Boner and Slicer
What the work is
Trims and cuts meat from bones, sides and carcasses.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Receives and inspects carcasses of slaughtered livestock for bruises, blood clots and other matter to remove
- Operates controls to direct and drop carcasses from supply rails to boning tables
- Cuts and separates meat, fat and tissue from bones, and washes, scrapes and trims fat, gristle and other unwanted matter from meat
- Operates and maintains meat cutting and slicing equipment to cut sides and quarters of meat into standard meat cuts
- Removes internal fat, blood clots and bruises to prepare cuts of meat for further processing or packing
- Cleans and sanitises work area and equipment, and follows safety and hygiene regulations while handling meat
- Collaborates with other meat processing workers to ensure efficient workflow
- Assists in receiving and storing meat products
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a meat processing plant with a receival yard, a chilled boning room and a small team that rotates between jobs. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- The boning room hums, every cut is clean and the tray fills with exactly what the order wanted
- A tricky job goes well because the team talked through it before starting
- A supervisor tells you the quality check on your work found nothing to fix
Hard days
- Standing in a cold room for hours with the same repeated movement
- A rush order that makes everyone want to speed up when speed is the risk
- Heavy, early starts and wet floors that need constant attention
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 831231, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.