cutting

Operation that follows chilling after slaughtering. The carcass, for bovines, undergoes wholesale cutting into quarters, legs, shoulders, globe, etc. Retail cutting is next, to individualize muscles or groups of muscles: the full loin and rump, the full loin without the rump, the shoulder in bovines; the leg, loin, shoulder and belly in pigs. More specialized cutting, done in a cutting plant or by the retail butcher, leads to individual, ready-to-cook portions. In the industry, the term UVCI (consumer sale units) is used.