Food Safety and Inspection Service
Logo of the USDA
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | March 14, 1977 |
| Headquarters | Jamie L. Whittten Building 1400 Independence Ave SW Washington, D.C. |
| Employees | 10,000 |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Department of Agriculture |
| Website | www.fsis.usda.gov |
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The FSIS draws its authority from the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, the Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 and the Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970. The FSIS also acts a national health department and is responsible for the safety of public food-related establishments as well as business investigation.
Food products that are under the jurisdiction of the FSIS, and thus subject to inspection, are those that contain more than 3% meat or 2% poultry products, with several exceptions, and egg products (liquid, frozen or dried). Shell eggs, meat and poultry products that are not under the jurisdiction of the FSIS are under the jurisdiction of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Food-related establishments to ensure that the said businesses follow USDA regulations.
More than 7,800 FSIS inspection program personnel are assigned to about 6,200 Federal slaughter, food processing, and import establishments in the United States. They verify the processing of tens of billions of pounds of meat and poultry, and billions of pounds of egg products. At slaughter establishments, inspectors perform antemortem inspections to prevent slaughter of diseased animals. Then, postmortem examinations are performed to identify diseased carcasses not evident antemortem. Regulations for rapid chilling, adequate trimming and sanitary washing are enforced to reduce microbial contamination. Samples are collected for residue testing to ensure antibiotic, pesticide and other residues are below regulatory limits. For cattle, tissue samples are tested for the presence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. In processing plants, procedures and formulations are monitored to ensure that FSIS requirements and standards of identity are met. Inspectors in egg plants primarily monitor pasteurization. In all plants, sanitation, net weight and accurate labeling (including nutrition information) regulations are enforced. FSIS also is responsible for products presented for import inspection at ports and borders, from countries that FSIS has determined to have inspection systems equivalent to Federal inspection systems.
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