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Welcome to the Food Safety and Inspection Service
(FSIS), a regulatory public health agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our mission is to protect consumers by ensuring that meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly labeled and packaged.
To assist us in this mission are dedicated veterinarians who are trained in public health and regulatory medicine. FSIS is the largest employer of veterinarians in the United States,
with approximately 1,100 working to protect the public from foodborne illnesses. In addition, we have partnered with the Public Health Service to provide Commission Corps veterinarians new opportunities in food safety programs.
Our veterinarians are team leaders that supervise other public health professionals to ensure establishments under our jurisdiction comply with sanitation standards and properly implement systems that control hazards from entering the food supply. Veterinarians enforce federal meat and poultry inspection procedures at ante mortem and throughout the entire establishment, including processing operations, transportation and distribution of meat, poultry and egg products to markets and retail stores. In addition, the knowledge of FSIS veterinarians may be utilized to advise academia, industry and professional groups on the effectiveness of food safety controls. FSIS veterinarians are also responsible for enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act and ensure industry is following proper procedures.
In addition to working in slaughter and processing establishments, veterinarians are also employed as epidemiologists, pathologists, auditors, risk analysts and biosecurity experts. Veterinarians in FSIS are executive leaders, international liaisons, and program managers.
Based on reports of foodborne health hazards and disease outbreaks, FSIS veterinarians are employed to conduct epidemiological investigations in collaboration with local health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We also assess State inspection programs; design new inspection systems and procedures; evaluate agency programs to assess their effectiveness in ensuring the safety of meat, poultry and egg products; create and deliver training and educational programs; and other challenging tasks that ultimately protect you and your family from foodborne illnesses.
Your veterinary education and experiences have provided you with a foundation that is valued and needed in our agency. For more information about joining our team, please continue to review the information on this Web site.
FSIS Task Force Report
In 1999, the Agency convened a selected panel charge with examining how veterinarians and the arts and science of veterinary medicine should be utilized in food safety. In August 2000, the Task Force published the document The Future of FSIS Veterinarian: Public Health Professionals For the 21st Century. The task force developed fifty-one recommendations that describe how to best utilize the knowledge, skills and aptitudes of veterinarians so that they can focus on critical activities in protecting the public health. Most of the recommendations are now being implemented resulting in new opportunities and professional challenges in assessing and assuring public health protection.
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