Iowa to become regional site for training meat inspectors

Des Moines is one of five regional sites designated in the United States by the U.S. Agriculture Department for training meat and poultry inspectors. Speaking at a Des Moines cold storage warehouse, the administrator of the U-S-D-A Food Safety and Inspection Service (F-S-I-S) announced the plan that also designates Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia and Boulder, Colorado as regional training sites. Garry McKee says it’s a change from the old system in which all inspectors travel to Texas A&M University for training. He says it will allow them to bring the training to employees and save time in having the employees travel for training. He says there are 63-hundred plants that require inspections every day, so he says there’s a giant training need for new employees, as well as ongoing training. McKee says this is an important part of the ongoing process of protecting the U.S. food supply.He says it’s a giant step for improving the nation’s public health. He says training is key to making the inspection system as modern as it can be. McKee says inspectors who’ll work at plants in the midwest will get their training in Des Moines. He says they chose the five regional sites based on a model they developed.He says the model used concentration of the packing plants, number of employees, access to employees in the region. The five new regional sites are expected to begin their meat and poultry inspection training in October.