Students in Year 9 were invited to view a butchery demonstration and learn about careers within the food industry during a talk by Jeremy Musgrove from Peterborough-based Stilton Butchers.

The session was an introduction to their food and nutrition studies and as well as being shown how to portion a chicken, the students learned about the best cuts of beef for burgers plus saw how the professionals minced meat, added seasonings and used a press to transform them into commercial burgers. They also focused on careers in the industry, job roles and responsibilities and health and safety issues.

Jeremy said ‘I wanted to show the students the different varieties of meat available and demonstrate the process we go through to produce the end product. Being a butcher is an extremely skilled profession and everyday is different. The starting salary of a trainee butcher can be up to £350 a week and if you become skilled and work extremely hard there is potential to make very good money. I would advise any students interested in becoming a butcher to contact your local butchery to enquire if they would be interested in taking on a trainee.’

Year 9 student Kimberley Johnson said ‘I thought the demonstration was interesting and it was good to see how meat is turned into burgers that we then buy in the supermarket.’

Year 9 student Dylan Lewis said ‘I enjoyed seeing all the different cuts of meat that you can get as it’s interesting to see the variety that is available and not just the ones that you see in the supermarket.’

Food technology teacher Mrs Wykes said ‘ The butchery demonstration is an annual event and launches the Year 9 food and nutrition course. They are set a challenge in the first term to make a healthy burger so watching how a butcher makes burgers is a great insight into this for them. The new GCSE requires the students to be able to portion a chicken and know how to do some butchery skills so it is also a good introduction for that. The students were engaged throughout the demonstration and were able to find out about different careers within the industry.’