Our Publix Deli Mojo Pork can put the mojo in your day! Our showstopping pork is a perfect marriage of flavors, and it all starts in our deli kitchen.
About our mojo pork
Our mojo pork is seasoned to be fantastically flavorful. This quality tender meat makes a festive centerpiece for any celebration, and leftovers make for great sandwiches, tacos and quesadillas too. It can even be added over scrambled eggs or to soups.
How we make it
The 1st step of the process is injecting fresh pork butt with our mojo marinade. At the injecting station, the pork is sent through an industrial-sized injector where it’s infused with our special marinade. The mojo marinade (photo 1) is a combination of citrus juices, vinegar, salt and soybean oil. The pork then goes into a cooler and marinates overnight.
The 2nd step of the process is to add more marinade and coat the pork in a dry rub. Once the pork is taken out of the cooler, it’s moved into a tumbler where the remaining mojo marinade is added, along with a dry rub (photo 2) which consists of garlic, onion and oregano seasonings. When the meat comes out of the tumbler, it’s stored in a cooler until it’s ready to cook.
The 3rd step is cooking the pork. Once removed from the coolers, the pork is placed in the ovens (photo 3) where it’s cooked to 158 F. After the cook cycle is complete, the racks are rolled into industrial-sized coolers to chill. Once the meat reaches 40 F, it goes into a large holding cooler.
The 4th step is packaging. When it’s time for the mojo pork to be packaged, it’s moved to a room where it’s unracked, inspected and bagged. It’s then vacuum sealed (photo 4) and dated prior to being weighed and labeled in the boxing area. Lastly, the finished product is placed on pallets and shrink-wrapped while food safety tests are performed by a 3rd-party laboratory. Once the test results are received (within 48 hours), the mojo pork is ready for shipping to our distribution centers.
About the deli kitchen
When the Lakeland deli kitchen opened in 1984, it was about half the size it is now and only produced a handful of our current offerings. Today, over 425 associates work at the 135,000-square-foot plant. A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector is on-site every time we’re making meat products. The deli kitchen is where many Publix-branded deli meats in the service case are processed and packaged, along with a variety of our Publix Deli Smokehouse meats like ribs, sausage and chicken, as well as our Publix Deli salads and dips.
