Food / Agricultural Inspector

Career Area: Agriculture, Horticulture, & the Outdoors

Occupation Group: Agriculture Workers

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Food / Agricultural Inspector earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $42,763

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $42,239

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Inspects food, processed food and food containers to be sure they are safe for consumers, or inspects animals, animal feed or crops to check for disease that could affect food supplies. Checks for compliance with private industry standards or federal food safety and agricultural regulations.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Food / Agricultural Inspector is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Physical Abilities: Physical Abilities, which refers to the ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs. These abilities often require strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.
• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Detail-Oriented: A detail oriented person is someone who pays attention to the details and can make a conscious effort to understand causes instead of just the effects, and that does this in a second nature type of way.
• Time Management: Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities - especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.
• Listening: Expertise in focusing on the words and intention being communicated by another in a way that demostrates focus and enhances the effectiveness of the interaction.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Food Safety: Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness.
• Quality Assurance and Control: Working experience with processes used to measure and assure the quality of a product and ensuring products and services meet consumer expectations.
• Food Preparation: Food preparation preparing food for eating, generally requires selection, measurement and combination of ingredients in an ordered procedure so as to achieve desired results.
• Food Service Experience: Foodservice(US English) or catering industry (British English)definesthose businesses, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal prepared outside the home. This industry includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many other formats
• Food Science: Food science is the applied science devoted to the study of food.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Food / Agricultural Inspector that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• Vaccination: Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual's immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Food Safety Specialist
• Food Inspector
• Food Safety And Brand Standard Specialist
• Fruit Expert
• Food Inspector Intermittent

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Soil / Plant Scientist
• Farm / Ranch Manager
• Forest / Conservation Technician