Skip to content

Food & drink

Meat hygiene inspector

Meat hygiene inspectors make sure food processing plants and slaughterhouses follow safety and hygiene standards.

Annual Salary

£17,000 to £30,000

Average UK salary in 2022 was £33,200
(source Office for National Statistics)

Working hours

38 to 40 a week

You could work: evenings / weekends; flexibly

2.9%
Future employment

There will be 2.9% more Meat hygiene inspector jobs in 2027.

Day to day tasks

You could:

  • inspect the hygiene in slaughterhouses, cutting plants, factories and cold stores
  • check animal welfare conditions
  • inspect live animals, game or poultry for signs of disease
  • help to carry out post mortems on diseased animals
  • check meat transportation conditions
  • make sure unfit meat is destroyed
  • collect data and write reports
  • suggest improvements and make sure they're carried out
  • keep up to date on meat hygiene regulations and advise employers

Working environment

You may need to wear protective clothing.

You could work in a factory.

Your working environment may be hot and cold.

You can get into this job through:

  • working towards this role
Work

To work as a meat inspector, you'll need to complete the:

  • Level 2 Certificate for Proficiency in Poultry Meat Inspection
  • Level 4 Diploma for Proficiency in Meat Inspection

You must be working in the meat industry to do the practical assessments needed to complete the courses.

You'll find more details about the qualifications and training providers through the Royal Society for Public Health.

Requirements and restrictions

You'll need to:

  • have a full driving licence

More information

Career tips

Experience of food manufacturing processes and the meat industry is important for this role.

Further information

You can find out more about becoming a meat hygiene inspector from Tasty Careers.

Showing jobs in:
View all vacancies in this region

You could become a manager in food retail or manufacturing, or a supervisor or manager with the Food Standards Agency.

Skills required and how your skills match up

What skills are required?

You'll need:

  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • the ability to analyse quality or performance
  • the ability to work well with others
  • patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
  • thinking and reasoning skills
  • customer service skills
  • knowledge of food safety
  • excellent verbal communication skills
  • administration skills
  • to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
My top 5 skills
Please sign in to compare your skills to this job. Sign in

To save or view your choices and results you must sign in or register (takes 1 minute).

Sign in Register