Wrapping with your butcher
My butcher insists on putting any meat, fish or poultry that I order into a plastic bag and then wrapping the whole thing again in a generous piece of butcher paper. I’ve asked him to use one or the other but not both, to which he claims that double wrapping is mandated by State health codes. I couldn’t imagine why. Over in the self-service meat and fish case, the items are protected only by a thin layer of plastic film. Why the double standard for meat, fish and poultry that is wrapped-to-order? Buying unpackaged food items is supposed to be a way of reducing packaging, so why was I required to accept more of it when buying this way?
I did a little research and found out that State health code doesn’t require double wrapping per say, but does require “sufficient’ wrapping to prevent meat juices from leaking out onto other items in one’s grocery cart. “Sufficient”, then, depends upon the item being ordered. Juices don’t run from cooked meat–like deli cuts–sausages that come in their own protective “skin” or dry-aged steaks, for example, but they are likely to run from a raw piece of poultry or moist fish. When raw juices are a concern–for both your butcher and you–the best way to circumvent double packing is to bring a reusable plastic container from home large enough to contain your order. If caught without your own container, when juices aren’t a factor, ask for butcher paper in lieu of any plastic. Butcher paper is the earth-friendlier choice–especially if it’s brown (unbleached) and made from some percentage of recycled material (hard to know for sure). I also think butcher paper is kind of quaint–I like the way those brown bundles look in my cart!
Butcher paper cannot be recycled due to its wax coating, but because of its wax coating, in many cases it can be wiped clean and reused as packing paper or gift wrap. I’ve been saving my butcher paper for years, but I’m hardly drowning in the stuff. I don’t buy much from the butcher in the first place (I’m an aspiring vegetarian), but even if I did, the flat sheets roll up neatly and compactly. My effort not only saves trees, but saves me money. I never have to buy packing material or wrapping paper!
Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
