Agricultural Inspector Inspect agricultural commodities, processing equipment, and facilities, and fish and logging operations, to ensure compliance with regulations and laws governing health, quality, and safety.
Agricultural Inspector is Also Know as
In different settings, Agricultural Inspector is titled as
- Brand Inspector
- Consumer Safety Inspector (CSI)
- Food Inspector
- Food Safety and Inspection Service Inspector (FSIS Inspector)
- Food Sanitarian
- Grain Inspector
- Inspector
- Seed and Fertilizer Specialist
- Shipping Point Inspector
Education and Training of Agricultural Inspector
Agricultural Inspector is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Agricultural Inspector
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Agricultural Inspector
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Agricultural Inspector
- Bachelor in Agricultural and Food Products Processing
- Associate Degree Courses in Agricultural and Food Products Processing
- Masters Degree Courses in Agricultural and Food Products Processing
Training Required for Agricultural Inspector
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Agricultural Inspector in different industries are
- Food Science Technicians
- First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers
- Agricultural Technicians
- Construction and Building Inspectors
- Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products
- Aviation Inspectors
- Occupational Health and Safety Technicians
- Transportation Vehicle, Equipment and Systems Inspectors, Except Aviation
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping
- Food Scientists and Technologists
- Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
- Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Transportation Inspectors
- Government Property Inspectors and Investigators
- Buyers and Purchasing Agents, Farm Products
- Animal Scientists
- Industrial Production Managers
- Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health
What Do Agricultural Inspector do?
- Inspect agricultural commodities or related operations, as well as fish or logging operations, for compliance with laws and regulations governing health, quality, and safety.
- Inspect or test horticultural products or livestock to detect harmful diseases, chemical residues, or infestations and to determine the quality of products or animals.
- Verify that transportation and handling procedures meet regulatory requirements.
- Collect samples from animals, plants, or products and route them to laboratories for microbiological assessment, ingredient verification, or other testing.
- Interpret and enforce government acts and regulations and explain required standards to agricultural workers.
- Write reports of findings and recommendations and advise farmers, growers, or processors of corrective action to be taken.
- Inspect the cleanliness and practices of establishment employees.
- Monitor the operations and sanitary conditions of slaughtering or meat processing plants.
- Inspect food products and processing procedures to determine whether products are safe to eat.
- Take emergency actions, such as closing production facilities, if product safety is compromised.
- Monitor the grading performed by company employees to verify conformance to standards.
- Label and seal graded products and issue official grading certificates.
- Set standards for the production of meat or poultry products or for food ingredients, additives, or compounds used to prepare or package products.
- Direct or monitor the quarantine and treatment or destruction of plants or plant products.
- Inquire about pesticides or chemicals to which animals may have been exposed.
- Set labeling standards and approve labels for meat or poultry products.
- Examine, weigh, and measure commodities, such as poultry, eggs, meat, or seafood to certify qualities, grades, and weights.
- Compare product recipes with government-approved formulas or recipes to determine acceptability.
- Review and monitor foreign product inspection systems in countries of origin to ensure equivalence to the U.S. system.
- Provide consultative services in areas such as equipment or product evaluation, plant construction or layout, or food safety systems.
- Advise farmers or growers of development programs or new equipment or techniques to aid in quality production.
- Testify in legal proceedings.
Qualities of Good Agricultural Inspector
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Tools Used by Agricultural Inspector
- Agricultural dividers
- Bacon bomb samplers
- Barley pearlers
- Beam scales
- Bean sack triers
- Block weights
- Blust drum samplers
- Boerner dividers
- Bulk lot triers
- Cargo trucks
- Counterpoise weights
- Dehairing machines
- Desktop computers
- Digital cameras
- Diverter samplers
- Dockage testers
- Double tube bag triers
- Electronic mass comparators
- Ellis cup samplers
- Equal-arm scales
- Extension ladders
- Flour triers
- Global positioning system GPS receivers
- Grain hopper scales
- Hand sieves
- Hard hats
- Light meters
- Moisture detectors
- Moisture scales
- Near infrared NIR analyzers
- Nuclear magnetic resonance NMR systems
- Oil samplers
- Packaging knives
- Pelican samplers
- Pipettes
- Point-type samplers
- Portable block weights
- Probe-type samplers
- Railway track scale test cars
- Railway track scales
- Rice bag triers
- Rice millers
- Rice shellers
- Rice sizers
- Rotary dividers
- Sealed baskets
- Single-tube open-ended bag triers
- Syringes
- Tankcar samplers
- Tapered bag triers
- Test weight apparatuses
- Test weight kits
- Thermal tape printers
- Ticket printers
- Truck probes
- Vehicle weight scales
Technology Skills required for Agricultural Inspector
- Image processing software
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Operational databases
- Word processing software