How To Become A Meat Inspector: What It Is and Career Path

What is a meat inspector and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a meat inspector. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.74 an hour? That's $34,826 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -17,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreMeat InspectorUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,826

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.82%

Asian 8.81%

Black or African American 11.60%

Hispanic or Latino 16.61%

Unknown 4.72%

White 57.44%

Gender

female 48.73%

male 51.27%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

8.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.4

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a meat inspector

Explore meat inspector education requirements

Most common meat inspector degrees

Bachelor's

36.9 %

High School Diploma

24.3 %

Associate

16.5 %

Start to develop specific meat inspector skills

Skills	Percentages
Food Safety	22.32%
USDA	19.48%
HACCP	9.74%
Federal Regulations	6.72%
Federal Laws	6.26%

Complete relevant meat inspector training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New meat inspectors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a meat inspector based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real meat inspector resumes.

Research meat inspector duties and responsibilities

Ensure effective sanitation including company's own GMP's.
Inspect slaughter and processing plants for compliance with USDA and WVDA rules regulations and procedures.
Verify establishment s slaughter/food processing operations comply with SPS/SSOP/HACCP requirements outline in 9 CFR 416 and 417.
Conduct dimensional and visual inspections procedures on CMM machines to ensure geometrical characteristics of the product are in specification.

Prepare your meat inspector resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your meat inspector resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a meat inspector resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable meat inspector resume templates

Build a professional meat inspector resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your meat inspector resume.