A professional who inspects establishments engaged in slaughtering livestock and processing meat intended for intrastate, interstate, and foreign shipment to enforce municipal, state, or federal standards. Responsibilities include:

• Examines animal and carcass before and after slaughtering to detect evidence of disease or other abnormal conditions.
• Determines that ingredients used in processing and marketing meat and meat products comply with standards of purity and grading, and that products are not adulterated or misbranded.
• Inspects processing areas to ensure sanitary conditions are maintained.
• Required to hold degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
• May specialize in inspecting establishments engaged in processing milk and milk products and be designated Veterinary Milk-Specialist; or inspecting establishments engaged in processing poultry and edible poultry products and be designated Veterinary-Poultry Inspector.