Food / Agricultural Inspector
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Food or Agricultural Inspector 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.
Job Outlook
There were 178 Food / Agricultural Inspector job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 6739 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Food / Agricultural Inspector industry, which includes the Food / Agricultural Inspector career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2017:
Salary
Many new Food / Agricultural Inspector jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $46,859.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $51,028.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Food / Agricultural Inspector postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $39,048.
Education and Experience
Posted Food / Agricultural Inspector jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 22.27% |
| Master's Degree | 7.55% |
| Doctoral Degree | 1.59% |
| Other | 33.88% |
Posted Food / Agricultural Inspector jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 73.6% |
| 3 to 5 years | 21.85% |
| 6 to 8 years | 2.55% |
| 9+ years | 2% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Food / Agricultural Inspector positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (39.52%)
- Quality Control (23.45%)
- Operations (22.38%)
- Management (21.18%)
- English Language (16.43%)
- Detail Oriented (15.49%)
- Customer Service (13.61%)
- Quality Assurance (12.82%)
- Computer Literacy (12.55%)
- Sales (11.52%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Food Safety And Sanitation (37.89%)
- Agriculture (28.8%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Auditing (20.7%)
- Biology (22.91%)
- Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Points (HACCP) (21.58%)
- Poultry (17.01%)
- Warehousing (14.43%)
- Standard Operating Procedure (15.97%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (9.74%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Food Inspection (3.19%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Food / Agricultural Inspector skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Consumer Safety Inspector
- Inspector
- Field Inspector
- Transportation Specialist
- Watercraft Inspector
- Grain Inspector
- Agricultural Specialist
- Meat Inspector
- Agriculture Inspector
- Food Inspector
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Food Safety Specialist
- Food Safety Manager
- Food / Agricultural Technician
- Meat and Seafood Processor / Packager
- Quality Assurance Supervisor
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Food / Agricultural Inspector jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- US Foods (184)
- Usda Food Safety & Inspection Service (177)
- Food Safety And Inspection Service (155)
- State of Minnesota (116)
- United States Department of Agriculture (115)
- State of Idaho (88)
- State of Florida (81)
- Eurofins (66)
- Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania (63)
- State Of Colorado (60)
North Carolina
- State of North Carolina (43)
- Wayne-Sanderson Farms (9)
- Food Safety And Inspection Service (9)
- Usda Food Safety & Inspection Service (8)
- US Foods (7)
- Merchants Distributors (5)
- Ross-mvi Holdings Limited (4)
- Sourceone (4)
- Perdue (3)
- United States Department of Agriculture (3)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Agricultural Education and Human Sciences Master's Degrees
- Agricultural Leadership Undergraduate Certificates
- Agricultural Science Undergraduate Degrees
- Agriculture Data Science Graduate Certificates
- Food Safety Graduate Certificates
- Plant Pests, Pathogens and People Undergraduate Certificates
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.