commodity meat

Noun

commodity meat (countable and uncountable, plural commodity meats)

1. Meat that is produced and distributed on an industrial scale, and can be bought and sold on the commodity markets.
   • Swift and Wilson are both attacking the problem of commodity meat head on.1966, United States Senate Select Committee on Small Business, Expansion of Exports, page 342
   • In 1987, when the pathogen was discovered in commodity meat, causing four deaths in two institutions in Utah, the USDA decided that the meat need not be sampled or recalled, because it was "safe" if "cooked properly" […]2002, Nicols Fox, “The Hamburger Bacteria”, in Gregory Pence, editor, The Ethics of Food, page 283
2. (US, dated) Meat distributed through the USDA commodity food distribution program.
   • I have used my last can of commodity meat.1967, Dissent, volume 14, page 483
   • Always the cheese, peanut butter, and rice from the commodity program. Or commodity meat — chicken, beef, pork — fried in a heavy iron skillet.1970, John Fetterman, Stinking Creek, page 70