Veterinary Meat Hygiene Inspector
As a Veterinary Meat Hygiene Inspector, you’ll work in a slaughterhouse or meat processing plant and ensure that all meat is being produced safely and in accordance with relevant laws.
*During first year of employment only
- Education: Veterinary degree
- Experience: no experience required, training will be provided
- English: Intermediate level of English
- Driving licence: B category – mandatory
- As a Veterinary Meat Hygiene Inspector, you’ll work in a slaughterhouse or meat processing plant and ensure that all meat is being produced safely and in accordance with relevant laws.
- You’ll check that live animals and poultry are all healthy and inspect carcasses to make sure that no nasty diseases are present.
- You’ll also guarantee that the highest animal welfare standards are maintained and that they are cared for properly and transported safely.
- Any actions that you recommend must be implemented immediately.
- This is a very important role, as you’ll be responsible for the safety of the public who purchase meat products and hopefully very quickly you will transition to the role of Official Veterinarian.
- Inspecting live animals and verifying that they have proper identification and are free of any diseases
- Ensuring high levels of hygiene and safety in slaughterhouses, processing plants and cold stores
- Checking animal welfare conditions
- Ensuring all processes are humane
- Making recommendations for improvement
- Recording and collecting data and writing reports
- Helping with post mortem inspections of carcasses
- Supervising the disposal of unfit meat
- Keeping up to date with regulations and advising companies of changes
- Liaising with a variety of different people
- Verifying the safe handling and disposal of animal by-products
- You’ll be expected to be able to deal with all sorts of different people, from animal breeders, staff in slaughterhouses and factories, other inspectors, butchers and retailers; this means someone who is an effective and confident communicator, able to build good working relationships and sort out issues as they arise.
- You’ll need to be able to write up detailed reports and understand legislative issues so that you can make effective decisions when required.
- Difficult situations will arise occasionally as part of the job and you’ll need to be the sort of person with the necessary diplomatic and communication skills to sort these out.
- And you’ll need to have a comprehensive knowledge of the meat processing sector.
- You can expect to work between 37 and 40 hours per week from Monday to Friday but this can vary, and overtime might be required to meet a deadline; also, you may have to work outside normal working hours if you’re visiting a slaughterhouse or processor.
- You can expect to spend some time travelling around from one inspection to the next so a driving license and access to transport is useful; conversely, if you’re inspecting a production line you might expect to be standing in one place for a while.
- You’ll have to be physically fit to be able to move and lift heavy meat carcasses; and sometimes the working conditions might be hot or cold, and you’ll be expected to wear protective clothing such as boots, hats and overalls.
- This is not a job for anyone who doesn’t like strong smells and a noisy environment!
- Within less than 12-months you would be expected to have trained through to become part of our Official Veterinarian team in both a technical and leadership role.
Job description
