Thoughts on Pork

[C. Keeper]

Meats seem to vary by processor, packer, etc.

I was wondering what the groups thought is on the "Swift" brand of pork?? It used to be good but something seems to have happened to the quality.
The ribs and butt I recently purchased just wasn't that good.

Thoughts?

 

[Greg Jones]

I don’t see the Swift brand here often, although at times our local Costco will have it. I’ve never bought any Swift meat that I was unhappy with. Buying any meat the past 10 months has been a Crapshoot. Even when the quality of the meat is good, the butchering often leaves a lot to be desired. The meat packing industry has been impacted greatly by COVID. I suppose I’m rambling on about things that we are already familiar with.

As a bit of trivia, it is said that Upton Sinclair’s book on the meat packing industry, ‘The Jungle’, was based on Swift Meats packing house in Chicago. Most of my career was in agronomy/crop production and at one time early on, I worked for Swift Fertilizers. It was the oldest fertilizer company in the US, originally created to utilize the byproducts of the meat packing plants.

 

[C. Keeper]

I don’t see the Swift brand here often, although at times our local Costco will have it. I’ve never bought any Swift meat that I was unhappy with. Buying any meat the past 10 months has been a Crapshoot. Even when the quality of the meat is good, the butchering often leaves a lot to be desired. The meat packing industry has been impacted greatly by COVID. I suppose I’m rambling on about things that we are already familiar with.

As a bit of trivia, it is said that Upton Sinclair’s book on the meat packing industry, ‘The Jungle’, was based on Swift Meats packing house in Chicago. Most of my career was in agronomy/crop production and at one time early on, I worked for Swift Fertilizers. It was the oldest fertilizer company in the US, originally created to utilize the byproducts of the meat packing plants.

It was my understanding that Swift was once an American owned company but has since been sold to a foreign entity.

 

[Greg Jones]

It was my understanding that Swift was once an American owned company but has since been sold to a foreign entity.

Wouldn’t surprise me-they have been sold over and over. So many of ‘our’ food and beverage companies are owned by outside interests. Smithfield Foods is by far the largest US pork producer, over 3x the volume of #2, and they are owned by a Chinese company.

 

[C. Keeper]

Wouldn’t surprise me-they have been sold over and over. So many of ‘our’ food and beverage companies are owned by outside interests. Smithfield Foods is by far the largest US pork producer, over 3x the volume of #2, and they are owned by a Chinese company.

Smithfield and Swift is pretty much what I see at my local stores. I think I need to try another brand for comparison.
Thank you.

 

[TheGuto]

I tend to see a lot of Smithfield and Swift here at Food Lion/Harris Teeter/Lowes Foods here in NC. Had an issue with Swift being spoiled upon opening the package a few months ago. Smithfield butt is currently on the smoker, and have had Smithfield before without issue.