94141 Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers

What this occupation covers

Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers prepare meat and poultry for further processing or for packaging for wholesale distribution. They are employed in meat and poultry slaughtering, processing and packing establishments.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 11 main duties for this code.

• Slaughter livestock using stunning devices and knives
• Skin, clean and trim carcasses
• Remove viscera and other inedible parts from carcasses
• Split carcasses into smaller portions to facilitate handling
• May slaughter cattle, calves and sheep as prescribed by religious laws.
• Cut beef, lamb, pork or veal carcasses or sides or quarters of carcasses into primal cuts for further cutting, processing or packaging
• Remove bones from meat
• Cut meat and poultry into specific cuts for institutional, commercial or other wholesale use
• Remove skin, excess fat, bruises or other blemishes from carcasses or meat portions.
• Slaughter poultry and remove inedible parts
• Remove feathers and singe and wash poultry to prepare for further processing or packaging.

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 11 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.

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
• 95106 Labourers in food and beverage processing
• 94143 Testers and graders, food and beverage processing
• 22111 Agricultural and fish products inspectors
• 92012 Supervisors, food and beverage processing

Excluded from this code

• Butchers - retail and wholesale (See 63201 Butchers - retail and wholesale)
• Labourers in food and beverage processing (See 95106 Labourers in food and beverage processing)
• Meat grader (See 94143 Testers and graders, food and beverage processing)
• Meat inspector (See 22111 Agricultural and fish products inspectors)
• Meat packing supervisor (See 92012 Supervisors, food and beverage processing)

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.

air knife meat cutter - meat packing plant · animal eviscerator - meat packing plant · animal skinner - meat packing plant · animal sticker - meat packing plant · animal stunner · beef boner · beef boner - meat packing plant · beef cooler worker - meat packing plant · beef sticker - meat packing plant · beef trimmer - meat packing plant · beef-pluck trimmer · benchman/woman - meat packing plant · brisket cutter - meat packing plant · calf skinner - meat packing plant · carcass splitter - meat packing plant · chicken plucker · chuck cap puller - meat packing plant · cutter - meat packing plant · dehairing machine dropper - meat packing plant · enzyme injector - food and beverage processing · ham cutter · ham sawyer - meat packing plant · head boner - meat packing plant · hog killer

Employment requirements

• Completion of secondary school may be required.
• For industrial meat cutters, completion of a program in industrial meat cutting or Experience as an industrial butcher is required.
• On-the-job training is provided for industrial butchers, meat cutters and poultry preparers.