Meat and Poultry Inspection Program
The Meat and Poultry Inspection program licenses and inspects meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities in a manner that is "equal to" federal inspection. It also responds to consumer food safety concerns involving meat or poultry products.
The Kansas Meat and Poultry Inspection Act (K.S.A. 65-6a18 et seq.) assigns to the meat and poultry inspection program the responsibility to provide antemortem and postmortem inspection of all cattle, sheep, swine, American bison, rabbits, goats, horses, mules, other equine and poultry slaughtered for human consumption. The act also provides regulatory oversight of meat and poultry product processing by establishing standards of identity for certain products, and other requirements relating to sanitation and labeling. With the expansion of the meat industry into innovative alternative meat selections, the act was amended to provide for their inspection; elk and domesticated deer in 1993, and ratites (ostriches, emus, rheas, etc.) in 1994. The act was amended in 2003 to allow for the uninspected slaughter and processing of the American bison and domesticated deer for sport or recreational purposes.
Our goal is to provide an inspection service that will ensure safe and wholesome meat and poultry products by detecting and eliminating those items that pose a health threat, are improperly labeled, or serve as a source of economic fraud to the consumer.