There are a few issues.BillyGr wrote: ↑December 11th, 2020, 8:35 am
OK, aside from someone coming in who doesn't eat meat but will eat dairy and not wanting their cheese to possibly have meat juice on it (and that's likely to be a small number of people out of the total customers), what is the issue?
All the items that they are slicing are designed to be eaten as is (that is, already cooked, so no issues that would occur with raw meat), and most likely if someone is ordering meat and cheese they are going to put both together at home anyhow on a sandwich.
First, it can create a flavor issue if the items are not being eaten together. For instance, we may buy the ham and swiss to eat a ham and swiss sandwich, but what if someone is buying them to eat separately and doesn't want their plain swiss to have a ham flavor in some of the slices?
There is also a texture issue. While dairy (cheese) is smooth and creamy, the lunchmeats are more of a watery/pasty texture. If you run both through the same slicer with the same blade (uncleaned) the combination of gunk built up from meat and cheese turns into a paste that impacts the performance of the slicer and slicer blade and will impact the slicer's ability to make a smooth, clean slice over time.
You could, theoretically, run both through the same slicer, if you disassemble it and clean the blade between the slicing of the meat and the slicing of the cheese, and not harm the blade.
There is also a potential appearance issue. Run some muenster (bright yellow) through the slicer then run some turkey (white) through and your turkey slices will have odd bright yellow spots that some folks may not know is from the cheese and think something is wrong with the turkey.
Also- run some pepper turkey or pepper ham through the slicer and then run cheese through and you will have pepper debris on the initial cheese slices that are sliced if you use the same slicer.
Another thing is if slicing at a standard thickness, typically the cheese is sliced a little thicker than the meat.
With all of that said, there is a sub chain in my area called Port of Subs. Their "thing" is sliced in front of you when you order. There is one slicer. The meat and cheese are sliced through the same slicer, nothing is cleaned in between. It has been that way since the 80's. Maybe they get away with it without harming their slicer since they are slicing a few slices at a time.