65202 Meat cutters and fishmongers - retail and wholesale

What this occupation covers

Meat cutters and fishmongers prepare and package pieces of meat, poultry and fish that are sold by food retailers or wholesalers. They use tools to cut, trim and package meat, poultry and fish on a daily basis. They are employed in grocery stores, fish stores, or they may be self-employed.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 7 main duties for this code.

• Grind meats and slice cooked meats using powered grinders and slicing machines
• Cut, weigh, package, label and price meat, meat products, fish and seafood for sale
• Suggest complementary and/or alternative meat or fish products to consumers
• Inspect the quality of meat, fish and seafood, expiry dates and ensure proper product rotation
• Ensure the maintenance of equipment, displays and work area
• Receive and store merchandise in accordance with the company's established standards
• Comply with government health and safety standards and occupational health and safety standards.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 2 of its 7 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Same job title, a different TEER

These job titles are filed under 65202 and also under the code below, which sits at a different TEER level. TEER affects which immigration programs an application can use and how work experience is counted, so this is not a labelling detail.

Your job title does not decide your code. The duties your reference letter actually describes do — which is the one thing a search engine cannot check for you.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 63201 Butchers - retail and wholesale
• 94142 Fish and seafood plant workers
• 64100 Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers

Excluded from this code

• Butchers - retail and wholesale (See 63201 Butchers - retail and wholesale)
• Fish cutter - fish processing (See 94142 Fish and seafood plant workers)
• Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers (See 94141 Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers)
• Seafood sales clerk (See 64100 Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

butcher helper - retail and wholesale · fish cutter - retail or wholesale · fishmonger · fishmonger - retail · meat cutter - retail or wholesale · meat portion cutter - retail or wholesale · pork cutter - retail or wholesale · retail meat cutter · supermarket meat cutter

Employment requirements

• Completion of secondary school may be required.
• On-the-job training in food stores is usually offered to meat cutters and fishmongers for retail sale.
• An apprenticeship program in meat cutting is available but voluntary.
• Trade certification for meat cutter is available, but voluntary, in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.