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Meat Inspection Section
Explainer
|State Budget & Tax
Division of Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Meats bound for market get the highest level of scrutiny from meat inspectors. But whether the meats are for sale or personal use, their slaughter, processing and sale are licensed and inspected to ensure proper animal treatment and food safety. Since 1967 Vermont has maintained a meat inspection program whose standards equal or exceed that of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service.
Any meat or meat products sold across state lines must be federally inspected. Of the 58 licensed slaughterhouses and processors in Vermont, 33 are inspected under state standards and 25 are under federal ones. Vermont’s Meat Inspection Service routinely conducts the inspections at the federal sites and is reimbursed by the USDA.
In addition to answering consumer and producer requests and complaints and providing voluntary inspections for a fee, Vermont’s Meat Inspection Service inspects licensed retail locations for proper handling, packaging and storage of meats.
In 2008 the Meat Inspection Section:
- issued 1,453 licenses (8 slaughterhouses, 25 processors, 93 wholesale distributors, 2 meat brokers, 1 public warehouseman, 1 renderer and 1,323 retail outlets for meat product sales)
- state inspected the slaughter of 2,200 animals and 3,929 fowl
- state inspected the processing of 176,666 pounds of meat and 91,346 pounds of poultry
- investigated 12 consumer complaints
- condemned 12 pounds of meat product
- conducted 1,400 sanitation and storage inspections at retail outlets
- collected $18,372 in fees and fines (53 percent voluntary inspection fees, 44 percent license fees, 3 percent fines)
Employees: 12
2008* revenues: $959,774 (59 percent federal,
39 percent General Fund, 2 percent fees)
2008* expenditures: $959,774 (80 percent personal services, 20 percent operating expenses)
*Approximate figures based on federal fiscal year 2008.
Source: Meat Inspection Section
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