United States Department of Agriculture

Agricultural Marketing Service

Federal Grain Inspection Service

Directive 9180.37 February 27, 2006

Distribution: FGIS, OSP, Industry Originating Office: FMD PPMAB

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in its programs on the basis of race, color, 

national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, and marital or familial status. (Not all prohibited 

bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternate means for communication of program 

information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and 

TDD).

To file a complaint, write to the USDA, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, 

Washington, DC 20250-9410, or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal employment opportunity 

employer.

VISUAL INSPECTIONS

Contents

VISUAL INSPECTIONS ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1

1. PURPOSE����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

2. REPLACEMENT HIGHLIGHTS��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

3. BACKGROUND��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

4. PROGRAM LIMITATIONS����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

5. PROGRAM CONTROLS������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

6. CERTIFICATION OF RESULTS�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
FGIS Directive 9180.37 February 27, 2006

Page 2

1. PURPOSE

This directive establishes procedures for performing “visual inspections” on select

analytical factors analyzed on domestic shipments of grain, rice, and graded

commodities

2. REPLACEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

This directive is revised to correct an error in the text regarding program limitations

3. BACKGROUND

In May, 2002, the Grain Inspection Advisory Committee asked the Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of our current Quality 

Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) and oversight programs. To comply with the Grain 

Inspection Advisory Committee request, AMS contracted a third party to examine the 

QA/QC and oversight programs to determine if AMS’s methods and structures are 

effective, efficient, and appropriate.

One of the recommendations made in the report focused on the implementation of

alternate picking procedures, such as reduced sample size or throw samples, under

defined circumstances. Current procedures for “picking” grain samples for damaged

kernels ensures an accurate quantification of damage. However, there are times when 

the customer may value timeliness of results over accuracy in estimating the amount of

damage

AMS has determined, after a successful field test of this procedure, to establish

guidelines to implement a visual inspection process

4. PROGRAM LIMITATIONS

Visual inspection is permitted for non-export shipments, and is limited to:

a. Visual/subjective factors (e.g., damage, subclass). This does not include technic

factors (e.g., shrunken and broken kernels), objective factors (e.g., moisture),

official criteria factors (e.g., stress cracks in corn).

b. Factors not required to be shown on the certificate by the regulations under the 

United States Grain Standards Act (USGSA) and Agricultural Marketing Act of 

1946 (AMA). This does not include cargo shipments (ships and barges) or grade

determining factors. Refer to section 800.162 of the USGSA Regulations and t

section 868.72 of the AMA Regulation

c. Factors that do not affect the sale price of the shipment.

d. Lots that are inspected and certified as single lots (e.g., individual trucklots, 

submitted samples). Multiple carriers certified as a combined lot, lots loaded under 

the CuSum loading plan, and other lots loaded where averaging of quality factor 

results is required are not available for visual inspection
FGIS Directive 9180.37 February 27, 2006

Page 3

5. PROGRAM CONTROLS

a. To participate in the visual inspection program the inspection office must:

(1) Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that outline the scope of the 

program, define responsibilities of official inspection personnel, and include 

an internal quality control process

(2) Inform the applicant for service when the visual analysis is used.

(3) Forward the SOP to the supervising field office for review and subsequent 

approval before performing visual inspection analysis

(4) Identify the factor(s) that were visually inspected on the work records. For 

example, if visual analysis was performed for the factor damaged kernels, 

the pan ticket must be marked with a signifier, such as the letter V for visual 

analysis, in the damaged kernels factor block, under the visual analysis result

b. Field offices will:

(1) Monitor the visual observation results based on QA/QC samples.

(2) Provide the Official Agency Manager and Agency Quality Assurance 

Specialist with specific feedback concerning the accuracy of visual inspection 

analysis

c. Failure to follow the locally established SOP will result in the disapproval of the 

visual inspection procedure at the inspection location

6. CERTIFICATION OF RESULTS

Visual inspection results are reported on the inspection certificate without any special

notation as to the method of determination