110% do NOT recommend SAN Meat processors in TN. I'm pretty sure that the people that keep them in business have no idea that there are far better places to take their animals and to get quality products to put back into their freezer.
I have been using another place that I have really been pleased with, however, they were booked out over 6 months. They've always been able to work me in within weeks of calling. So that led me to have to use another processor, unfortunately. Red Flag - if they aren't booked, there is a reason. I had called around to others, more locally, because I wanted 2 things for sure. Beef bacon and check meat. Both of which they said they could do. Not once, not twice, but 3 times. I asked when I called to check availability. I asked again when I called back to schedule and again when I dropped the beef off. All 3 times, the answer was yes. When I got there to drop off, before I unloaded, I said to 2 people inside, don't forget the check meat. I won't be able to go home if you don't get it. It was written and starred on the cut sheet as well.
I went to pick up the meat when they said it was ready. No check meat. No beef bacon. When asked about the beef bacon, she says, oh we can't season or cure it, we just keep it whole. Okay Sally, that's BRISKET! NOT beef bacon! So the answer SHOULD have been a solid NO, we do not, or can not, do beef bacon, just harvest the brisket. Pissed, to say the VERY least. That is like asking someone for tallow and getting a pack of suet. Moving on. The ground beef is packed very poorly and anywhere from .40-.90 pounds. Really. I have taken beef to processors for well over a decade and never ever have I gotten pound packs of ground beef like that. .98,.99 maybe but there has almost always been right at a full pound in each pack. Except for the end of the run, of course. I mean way back in freezer wrapper days, they package it in full pound packs. Moving on. Boxes. If you have ever purchased beef from me, you know I utilize FREE milk boxes that I pick up from a local grocery store. SAN Meat charges you $2 per box. You have no choice. Other processors offer that service to you for convenience. Every facility that I have been to has carts and plastic trays that they put the beef into and roll into the freezer. It allows air flow and is not too 'packed' so the meat cools and freezes correctly. This place, SAN Meat, puts it into cardboard boxes, which passes unnecessary expense on the customers, and they must stack them, which does not allow for appropriate air flow. Needless to say, many packs I encountered, when unpacking the boxes into coolers for the 2 hour journey home, were not frozen. The boxes would not fit into the coolers. But the FREE boxes I usually use, do fit! Bone in steaks were not vacuumed sealed, just sealed. Other facilities use a sheet of plastic to protect the bag from punctures from the bones and vacuum seal them properly. And if they were trying to conserve packaging material, they would put a FULL POUND of ground beef in the bags! I also found some bags that I would have not let leave my business to get into a customer's freezer. I have used a number of processors in the past 5 years. Largely due to the fact that some people backed out on purchasing some hogs that I had taken their word they were going to get and ended up getting stuck with 7, 500# hogs at one time. Anyways. Places I said I would not use again. However... I would use them over SAN Meat any day!!! And yes, I do understand these are petty complaints, as many people do not have daily food. When you rent land, grow cows, harvest hay yourself to fed in winter, buy a bull, wait 9 months, wait 9-12 months, then pour grain into them for 6-9 more months and then haul them and then go pick the meat up and pay $1,000-$1,200+ just for processing, you should be able to get a decent product to pass on to people who care about what meat they feed their family. read more
