Job Profile:      Agricultural Commodities 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.

45-2011
Job Information
   
   
38,600 59,040 90,980

Select Tasks
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.





Select Abilities
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
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). 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. The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). 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).
The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways. The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem. The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures. The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns. The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
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. The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you. The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources). The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects. The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects. The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
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. 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. 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.
The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears. The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists. The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects. The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object. The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
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. The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath. The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs. The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion. The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). The ability to see details at a distance. The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
The ability to see under low light conditions. The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead. 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.
The ability to see objects in the presence of glare or bright lighting. The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness. The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated. The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.




Tools Used
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

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