Hotel and Restaurant Meat Purveyors: Improved Methods and Facilities for Custom Service Houses

Excerpts from the report: One of the newer members of the meat industry is the wholesale meat purveyor that provides ready-to-cook meat cuts to hotel dining rooms, restaurants, hospitals, schools, and other establishments that serve meals. Hotel and restaurant meat purveyors have had a spectacular growth within the past several decades, both in number of houses and in volume of meat handled. The number of houses in 1964 was estimated as 1,000, an increase of about 70 percent since World War II. These houses now account for over two-thirds of the total volume of meat and meat products sold to the food service industry. This report covers hotel and restaurant meat purveyors that prepare roasts, steaks, and other meat cuts, on a custom service basis; such houses deal primarily in fresh meat. They prepare (fabricate) meat ready for cooking according to customer specifications, and deliver orders usually the same day, often within a few hours after the order is placed. It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of the hotel and restaurant meat purveyors operate primarily as custom service houses. Other hotel and restaurant meat purveyors fabricate meat, freeze it, and deliver to customers from inventory; this type of meat purveyor was not included in this study.