More than 30 years ago, Nicholas Meat was founded in the beautiful Sugar Valley of central Pennsylvania. Since then, this cow-bull harvest facility has continued to evolve and innovate by providing beef to families in the U.S. and abroad in the most sustainable way possible while protecting the natural resources in the area we call home.

First and foremost, quality, safety and excellence are foundational to every aspect of the Nicholas Meat business – especially when it comes to beef processing. Quality meat begins with animal welfare and continues with food safety. As a USDA federally inspected facility, Nicholas Meat operates under a fully implemented, validated and continually verified food safety system. This safety system is monitored by Nicholas Meat’s quality assurance department and verified by a combination of outside third-party agencies and on-site USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspection personnel to ensure all programs meet or exceed industry expectations.

Nicholas Meat Products

Many people have asked what Nicholas Meat produces. Today, we focus mainly on boneless beef trimming, which prepares beef to be ground into burger. Nicholas Meat does not grind the meat onsite. Instead, the boneless beef trimmings are sent to further processing facilities, which then grind the meat to specifications for various restaurant chains and retail grocery stores across the United States.

“This process accounts for the majority of our product,” explains Duane Eichenlaub, Nicholas Meat Regulatory and Sustainability Manager. “After beef leaves our plant, it is further processed by a grinding facility. Nicholas Meat products can be found anywhere in the United States—from New York to Washington, from California to Florida, and everywhere in between.”

In addition to boneless beef trimmings, Nicholas Meat also produces various cuts for further processing. The individual products will undergo processes ranging from portioning for distribution to retail sales to utilization in a customer’s end-product formulation. These cuts are derived from beef primals, or the main sections the carcass is broken into during fabrication, or deboning operations. Primals are identified as the chuck, brisket, flank, rib, plate, loin, sirloin and round. Want to learn more about beef cuts? The Pennsylvania Beef Council offers two great charts at https://www.pabeef.org/education/beef-cut-charts.

Additional Product Offerings

Beyond boneless beef trimmings and various beef cuts, Nicholas Meat provides offal items to the international market. Offal products are the byproduct of the harvest process and include such items as the edible internal organs, tongue, and tail of an animal. Nicholas Meat sends the majority of its offal production to international firms which then arrange further processing of the product to the specifications of their customers.

“Additionally, byproducts from both the harvest and fabrication process that cannot be used for boneless beef trimming, various beef cuts, or offal are shipped to a rendering facility,” he added. “Items made from the rendering process include beef tallow, dog food flavoring, and much more.” Because of Nicholas Meat’s size, the company sees value in and passes on a premium to farmers for certain types of programs. For example, the company has programs set up for farmers to deliver certified organic, grass-fed certified organic, natural grass-fed, natural and Angus beef. To learn more about what Nicholas Meat produces, and the programs farmers can utilize, go to www.nicholasmeat.com/products