Federal meatcutting work means cutting meat, trimming it, and taking out the bones. Workers handle pork, beef, lamb, and veal. The meat arrives in several forms, including boxed beef, whole pork sections and the smaller pieces cut from them, and sides, quarters, and large sections of lamb and veal.
From those, workers produce chops, steaks, cutlets, roasts, ground meat, and other small portions. They do it with powered machines and hand tools, among them grinders, slicers, meat saws, tenderizers, knives, and scrapers.
At some worksites the job also covers fish and poultry. It can include wrapping the finished products and setting them out for retail display. These are nonsupervisory positions, so the duties are the cutting and preparation itself rather than supervising other staff.