Meat Products Manufacturers NAICS 3116

Oct 23, 2025 - NYC to Ban Chicken Nuggets

• New food standards announced by the City of New York would take chicken nuggets off school cafeteria menus next year, The New York Times reports. The city’s move to ban processed meats, create new restrictions on artificial colors and preservatives, further limit low-calorie sweeteners, and increase offerings of “minimally processed plant protein foods” would apply to nearly a dozen city agencies, including public schools and hospitals, and those serving older adults and homeless people, among others, according to NYT. The new standards, which go into effect in July 2026, are an attempt by Mayor Eric Adams to make New Yorkers healthier. However, the National Chicken Council in an October letter to the mayor pushed back against banning processed meats arguing that nutrition and student acceptance, not a process label, should be used to determine the acceptability of school entrées.
• Aging food processing infrastructure – some dating back more than half a century – poses risks for food manufacturers, especially producers of perishable products that must move swiftly through the system to preserve freshness and quality, Food Processing (FP) reports. Older equipment is more likely to break down, interrupting production and potentially leading to product loss and unexpected replacement costs. Moreover, prolonged downtime or product loss due to breakdowns can ripple through the supply chain. An incident at a poultry plant affected feed suppliers, transportation networks, as well as downstream distributors and retailers, FP gave as an example. The Boar’s Head deli meat plant in Jarrett, Virginia that was the source of a listeria outbreak that killed nine people, sickened dozens, and caused significant reputational damage to the company was 44 years old when it was shut down in 2024.

• Meat and poultry processors are feeling the impact of the freezing of federal grants by the Trump administration, according to the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP). Companies that were awarded grants in 2023-24 but not yet received the funds are finding themselves in the middle of expansions and equipment purchases without a way to move forward. The AAMP cites the case of New Hampshire’s Granite State Packing, which was awarded $1.6 million from the USDA under the Local MCAP (Local Meat Capacity) Grant to support independently-owned meat and poultry processing businesses. According to the company, it started construction and ordered more than $600,000 worth of new equipment before learning that grant funds were on hold until further notice. Granite State Packing isn’t alone. Many small and independent producers and farmers have had USDA funding they were counting on frozen by the Trump administration.
• Producer prices for animal slaughtering and processing firms climbed 13.3% in August compared to a year ago, after rising 1.8% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Industry producer prices, which hit another record high in August, have been rising steeply since March. Retail meat prices rose 7.3% year over year and 1.7% versus the previous month, per the Labor Department’s August 2025 Consumer Price Index. Industry employment grew 0.9% YoY in July, while the average industry wage rose 1.2% over the same period to $22.48 per hour, down $0.20 from their peak in January, BLS data show.