Electricity used in a meat processing facility is subject to sales and use taxes because it has been deemed more comparable to a butcher’s shop than a processing plant. The meat processing facility receives cuts of meat and packages them in order to ship them off to customers. Processing, as defined as Missouri state law, is the act in which materials are used to alter or minimize the meat into a different state from which it was received. In this case, however, the state did not believe that the activites met the definition of processing and, therefore, ruled that the electricity utilized in the facility did not qualify for the processing exemption. (Letter Ruling No. LR4370, Missouri Department of Revenue, November 20, 2007, released February 2008)