Meatpacking is a general term for the industry around processing and packaging livestock animals that are eaten as food. Meatpacking is often difficult, dangerous work.
Sometimes the term meatpacking is used for the literal packing of meat products into packages that can be sold to consumers. More often, it includes the entire process, from the slaughtering of animals to the shipping and distribution of meat. The history of meatpacking is parallel to the invention of refrigeration and expansion of railways for transporting meat. Injury rates are extremely high in meatpacking.