Vermont Meat & Poultry Inspection

Mission:

To protect the health and welfare of consumers and the public by assuring meat and poultry products produced are wholesome, unadulterated, and properly marked, labeled, and packaged.

Programs and Resources:

• Forms and Applications
• Meat Handlers Facilities - Search
• Retail Meat and Poultry Vendors
• Compliance and Enforcement
• Humane Handling
  • Commercial Livestock
  • Poultry
• Livestock Inspection Exemptions
  • Personal Use Exemption
  • "On-Farm" Personal Use Exemption
  • Custom Exemption
  • Exemption FAQ's
• Poultry Inspection Exemptions
• Policies, Directives and Notices
• Civil Rights
• Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program (CIS)
• Consumer Complaints and Concerns Submission
• Field Notes Newsletter

What we do:

The Vermont Meat Inspection Program provides inspection services for meat and poultry slaughter operations, simple processing for ground products and individual cuts, complex processing for products such as ham, bacon, summer sausage, and Jerky products, and much more.The inspection of these products and processes allows local producers to market their meat and poultry products to consumers, restaurants, retailers, and wholesalers throughout the state.

• The Vermont Legislature found that meat and poultry products are an important source of the state’s total supply of food, and it was essential to the public interest that the health and welfare of consumers be protected by assuring that these commodities are wholesome, unadulterated, and properly marked, labeled, and packaged.
• The Vermont Meat Inspection Section was established by the Vermont State Legislature in 1967, after passage of the Wholesome Meat Act in 1967, which allowed the creation of state meat inspection programs that were run in a manner “equal to” that of the federal inspection system.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets has a cooperative agreement with the USDA Food safety Inspection Service (FSIS) which allows the state of Vermont to provide inspection services to meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities that produce product to be sold within Vermont. 

The Federal Meat Inspection Act (as amended by the Wholesome Meat Act, December 15, 1967), the Federal Poultry Products Inspection Act,  and Title 6 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated Chapters 201 (Humane Slaughter of Livestock), Chapter 204 (Preparation of Livestock and Poultry Products), and Vermont Code of Rules provide the legal basis for the rules and regulations that are applied to attain this objective.

Hot Topics:

ON-FARM SLAUGHTER INFORMATIONAL AND QUESTION/ANSWER SESSION - The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets held an informational and Q&A virtual forum September 15th for those interested in On-Farm slaughter, or who have had questions about it. Meat Inspection Chief, Julie Boisvert, conducted an overview of information, addressed misconceptions, and answered questions for those attending.  Below is the recording of this Q&A session:

NY Guide to Direct Marketing LIvestock and Poultry - While written from a New York state perspective, this guide contains good baseline information

Meat Slaughter and Processing Capacity Survey - In the Spring of the past two years, the Agency of Agriculture has conducted a survey of all state and federally inspected meat processing facilities to assess the types of slaughter services available in Vermont and what capacity issues exist. Below are the PDF versions of both surveys.  To view please click on the link.

• Meat Slaughter & Processing Capacity Survey - Spring 2024
• Meat Slaughter & Processing Capacity Survey - Spring 2023

For any questions, please contact Julia Scheier at Juliea.Scheier@Vermont.gov