Meat Inspection

By law, all meat and meat animals (including poultry, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equine animals) in the United States must be inspected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the USDA, or a state inspection program which is monitored by the USDA. Inspection ensures that the meat is fit for human consumption. Animals are inspected before and after slaughter for signs of disease so that only the meat of healthy animals is sold as meat or meat products. Each step of production is also scrutinized to guard against contamination and misrepresentation of meat products.

Mandatory meat inspection is paid for out of tax dollars. Animals which are not covered by the mandatory inspection laws (such as buffalo, rabbit, reindeer, elk, deer, antelope) may be inspected by an FSIS inspector for an hourly fee which is paid for by the requester of the inspection.

After inspection, a carcass or major meat cuts are stamped with an inspection symbol using food-grade vegetable dye. After trimming, the inspection mark might not appear on retail cuts such as roasts and steaks. However, those cuts which are then packaged in an inspected facility will bear the inspection mark of that facility.

Inspection mark on raw meat

Inspection mark on raw poultry

Inspection mark on processed meat products