ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
TABLE 2
Personnel of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
Job Title
Job Qualifications
Job Description
Food inspector (FI)
High school diploma and 2 years of experience in sanitation, farm animal raising, and/or meat processing
Work on the line in slaughter companies. It is required that an FI be on the line whenever slaughter lines are operating.
Consumer safety inspector (CSI)
≥1 years of FI experience within FSIS
Work off-line at slaughter lines at slaughter and/or fabrication companies. Patrol assignment might include two or more companies daily; one of the companies serves as headquarters for the patrol assignment. Assess and analyze food safety systems written and implemented by companies. Investigate consumer complaints. Determine action to be taken when companies have demonstrated numerous noncompliances. EIAOs are stationed in government district offices. Supervise FIs and CSIs. Conduct dispositions of carcasses and cadavers that have been segregated by FIs to determine whether certain parts or the whole should be condemned and destroyed.
Enforcement investigation and analysis officer (EIAO)
Training in EIAO methodology; a bachelor’s of science degree (usually), but medical doctors and doctors of veterinary medicine are often hired as EIAOs, both within and outside FSIS Doctor of veterinary medicine degree or equivalent
Public health veterinarian (PHV)
Inspector-in-charge (IIC)
CSI or PHV
The primary FSIS inspector in any regulated company.
Note. Once hired, FSIS employees receive specific training from FSIS. CSI is a promotion from an FI position.
ness checks are conducted on these addi- tional consignees. At recall effectiveness checks, EIAOs ascertain: •If consignees received the recall notices from the recalling firm. • When, how, and how much of the aected product was received. •How much of the product was left on the shelf at the time the recall notice was received. •What was done to the product (e.g., placed on hold for further instructions by the manufacturer or company headquar- ters, destroyed and discarded, shipped further into commerce, shipped back to the supplier). If stores have not received recall notifica- tions, a traceback is conducted to determine if a prohibitive action in the chain of con- signees was the cause of the recall failure. If stores, having received the recall notifica- tion, are still oering the aected product for sale, the EIAO will contact the district oce for instructions. This action usu- ally results in product detention and even- tual seizure by federal sheris if the owner does not properly make a disposition of the aected product. For both consumer complaints and recall eectiveness checks, EIAOs confer with the case specialist at the district oce to prepare
case files in the possible event that these mat- ters are taken to court. Companies are to have written procedures for recalling adulterated products, including how they will make the decision to recall and how the recall will be implemented. Further- more, companies are to notify the FSIS dis- trict oce within 24 hr of learning they have received or shipped adulterated products (Animals and Animal Products, 2023b). General Control FSIS inspectors control the companies by stopping production until the company resolves any sanitation or labeling issue. FSIS inspectors can “tag” products, areas, or equipment that do not meet regulatory requirements. These tagged items are not to be used or processed until the regulatory requirements are met and the tags have been removed by FSIS. Whenever tagging does occur, FSIS inspectors (not EIAOs) write a noncompliance record documenting the noncompliance, the regulation(s) violated, and other noncompliance record numbers for which noncompliances of the same root cause might have been documented. The FSIS inspectors give a copy of the noncom- pliance record to the company, and then after the company takes immediate correc- tive action, writes how the correction was completed and details the proposed preven-
tive measure. The noncompliance report is the major tool FSIS uses for documenting noncompliances at federally inspected meat and poultry companies. Conclusion and Summary Part 1 of this special report highlights the history, personnel, responsibilities, and gen- eral requirements of federal inspectors and companies. The key dates for the history of FSIS are 1906 when FSIS was first initiated by the Meat Inspection Act due to Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle ; 1957 when the Poultry Products Inspection Act was writ- ten; and January 2000 when the deadline was set for all existing companies to have HACCP plans in place. FSIS inspectors include public health veteri- narians, food inspectors, consumer safety in- spectors, and EIAOs. Public health veterinar- ians are in supervisory positions at the district and circuit levels. Food inspectors work on the line at slaughter companies. Consumer safety inspectors are o-line inspectors at slaughter and fabrication companies. EIAOs conduct duties outside of the circuit levels and are sta- tioned in government district oces. Readers may find it interesting that food inspectors and consumer safety inspectors do not require a science or agriculture degree for entry and promotion. Other food inspection agencies generally require at least a bachelor’s
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Volume 85 • Number 9
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