Why do most grocery stores have slicer (or two) dedicated to cheese slicing only…and the rest for meats? Is there some health secret they’re hiding?
- Jinx
Kosher meats would be my first guess. Isn’t it against the rules to use the same tools to prepare meat and dairy?
My uncle has a small Italian market. Even in his small deli, he has one slicer just for cheese and one just for meats. Slicing cheeses are mostly dry, but many meats are wet, so separate slicers are used for each.
While this is true, these delis don’t give a hoot about Kosher when they’r slicing ham, etc., etc…! Trust me, this is a common practice. Check your local grocery!
Maybe for the sake of the vegetarians. And the non-strict kosher people.
I always figured it was originally to speed up the process. You got two people, there’s a good chance both want a meat and cheese, so you do one’s meat and the other’s cheese, and then swap. Or one person just wants cheese and the other just meat. Afterwards, they can then claim them to be kosher (although not if ham or salami is used on the meat one…), and that vegetarians need not worry about pieces of meat on their cheese. But I’m still convinced the first reason was just to make the deli counter go faster.
Maybe because some deli meats are spiced, so they don’t want them to get in the cheese?
You ever slice a lot of cheese and then slice cold meat with the same knife? It gets gummed up with cheese, and doesn’t slice the meat evenly. With deli slicers, it’s a PITA to thoroughly clean them. (Cite: my sister, who used to work in a deli for several years.)
Or, here’s my logical but un-cited WAG: Deli meats can carry listeria, which is a risk for pregnant women. The deli might be careful to not cross-contaminate the cheese-slicer with potential listeria from the meats. I doubt this is what they’re thinking, but could be some sort of health code.
I’m fairly sure kosher has nothing to do with it, considering the exacting standards of kosher.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the other meat and cheese just being in the same area as non-kosher foods renders them non-kosher.
And of course those bags they put the slices in aren’t kosher.
Having worked at a deli counter, I never asked, but pretty much assumed that it was because the cheese slicer was always gunked up with cheese.