Meat Hygiene Inspector (3230)

Job summary

Are you passionate about protecting public health and animal welfare, ensuring the food we eat is safe and animals are treated humanely?

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) are looking to recruit Meat Hygiene Inspectors (MHIs) to deliver Official Controls in slaughterhouses across Scotland, ensuring animals are slaughtered humanely and the meat produced is fit for human consumption. They work under an Official Veterinarian (OV) who provides technical support and are line managed by a Field Operations Coordinator (FOC) who provides managerial support.

The posts are at the following locations:

• Kepak, Portlethen (1 position)
• Quality Pork Producers, Brechin (2 positions)
• Dunbia Highland Meats, Saltcoats (1 position)
• A.K. Stoddart, Ayr (1 position)

Job description

Responsibilities

• Conduct post-mortem inspection of the carcase and offal of slaughtered food animals to determine their fitness for human consumption. This involves visual inspection, making incisions into organs, and palpating organs.
• Monitor the welfare of animals at the point of slaughter, ensuring Food Business Operators (FBOs) comply with relevant welfare legislation.
• Carry out hygiene patrols and inspections in your base plant and any co-located cutting plant, ensuring FBO staff comply with hygiene legislation.
• Carry out sampling for medicinal residues on behalf of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, as well as other sampling schemes.
• Record and report any non-compliances to the OV, and collate and input inspection results into FSS computer systems.
• Communicate with and foster positive working relationships with the FBO to manage and resolve non-compliances.

Person specification

Qualifications

• You must be fully trained and experienced in all aspects of Meat Inspection.
• You must hold the Royal Society for Public Health Level 4 Diploma in Meat Inspection or equivalent.
• You must hold a full, valid UK driving licence and have access to your own vehicle, or demonstrate the ability to travel to work by other means.

Success profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on. Professional/Technical Skills:

• Connections and communication - Working level.
• Adaptability to change - Working level.

You can find out more about the skills here: Core ODP Skills - Operational Delivery Profession

Experience:

• Experience of cattle, sheep and pig inspection preferably in high speed plants.

Behaviours:

• Making effective decisions - Level 2.
• Seeing the big picture - Level 2.

You can find out more about Success Profiles here: Success profiles: candidate guide - gov.scot

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,754, Scottish Government contributes £9,778 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

How to applyApply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 750 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment. If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and presentation. Assessments are scheduled for w/c 23 March 2026, however this may be subject to change.

Information session

An online information session will be held on 3 March 2026 at 19:00 to provide further details about the roles and answer any questions you may have. Please click here to register your interest. Once registered, you will receive a link to join the session.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Greg Bowie
• Email : greg.bowie@fss.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot