Glossary
Meat textile glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms used in meat stockinette and carcass packaging.
- Abattoir
- A slaughterhouse: the facility where animals are slaughtered and dressed into carcasses.
- Beef shroud
- A large cloth or knitted cover wrapped around or pulled over a beef side to protect it and smooth fat cover during chilling.
- Blood wicking
- The ability of a fabric, mainly cotton, to draw surface blood and moisture away from the meat.
- BRC Global Standards
- A widely used food-safety certification scheme for manufacturers supplying retail and food-service chains.
- Carcass bag
- A knitted stockinette tube with one closed end, sized for a whole carcass, side or quarter.
- Circular knitting
- Knitting on a cylinder of needles to produce a seamless tube of fabric; the method used to make stockinette.
- Closed end
- The tied, sewn or knotted end of a pre-cut stockinette bag.
- Cold chain
- The unbroken chain of refrigerated storage and transport from slaughter to the end customer.
- Drip loss
- Fluid that leaks from meat during storage, lowering saleable weight.
- FCL
- Full container load: an export shipment that fills a whole shipping container.
- Freezer burn
- Dry, discoloured patches on frozen meat caused by moisture loss from the surface.
- Gauge
- The number of needles per inch on a knitting machine; higher gauge gives a finer, denser knit.
- Halal certification
- Certification that a product and its processing aids contain no substances prohibited under Islamic dietary law.
- Hindquarter / forequarter
- The rear and front halves of a beef side, often shipped and bagged separately.
- ISO 22000
- The international standard for food safety management systems across the food chain.
- Laid-flat width
- The width of a stockinette tube measured flat and unstretched; the main sizing figure.
- Lint
- Loose fibres shed by a fabric; lower lint is preferred on meat surfaces.
- Meat netting
- An open elastic mesh used to shape and tie hams, roasts and sausages; different from carcass stockinette.
- Meat sock
- An informal name for a pre-cut stockinette bag.
- Mutton cloth
- The traditional UK, Australian and New Zealand name for cotton stockinette used on lamb and mutton carcasses.
- Poly-cotton
- A blended yarn of polyester and cotton that combines strength with absorbency.
- Shrink
- Weight lost by a carcass during chilling and storage, mostly through surface drying.
- Stockinette
- A stretchy tubular knitted fabric used to cover carcasses and cuts of meat.
- Tubular knit
- Seamless knitted fabric in tube form, produced by circular knitting.
- Vacuum baling
- Compressing rolls of fabric under vacuum into dense bales to save shipping volume.
Guides on this topic
Terminology
Mutton cloth, carcass bag, meat sock: stockinette names explained
Stockinette, mutton cloth, carcass bag, beef shroud, meat sock, frock: what each name means, where it is used, and which product you actually need.