Livestock Humane Handling Inspection Task 

Data Documentation

Overview

The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (7 U.S.C. 1901, 1902, and 1906) requires the handling and 

slaughtering of livestock be carried out only by humane methods. Inspection program personnel (IPP) 

perform the Livestock Humane Handling Verification Task at least once per slaughter shift. This task is 

performed when slaughter operations are being conducted by the official establishment or when 

animals are on the official establishment premise, even when slaughter operations are not scheduled to 

be conducted. Regulations verified during the performance of the Livestock Humane Handling 

Verification Task caninclude any combination of humane handling regulations in Title 9 Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR) 313.1-313.50. The Regulations verified during the performance of a Livestock Humane 

Handling Verification Task may vary due to differences in inspected establishments and the processes 

available for IPP to verify at the time verification task is performed.

Records are eligible for inclusion if the InspectionTaskCode value is 04C02 (LivestockHumane 

Handling).

These data contain information on livestock humane handling inspection task verifications. Also, 

noncompliance records (NRs) or Memorandum of Interview (MOIs) associated with the task are 

reported. NRs are only eligible for inclusion if the NR regulations (NRRegs) or NR description 

(NRDescription)field is populated. Rows in the data that don’t contain NR fields indicate instances ofthe 

task where inspectors did not find regulatory noncompliance.

This dataset is a snapshot in time of a dynamic process. Datasets are posted by fiscal quarter with a 

quarterlag on the first Friday of the next quarter. For example, data for Fiscal Year 2023 Quarter 1 was 

posted on April 7, 2023. This information will be updated on a quarterly basis andwill be made available 

to the public in future datasets.

Establishments may present objections to content within a MOI and may appeal an NR per 9 CFR 306.5. 

Appeals and objections may result in revised data reflected in future data sets. More information 

regarding appeals can be found in the FSIS Fact Sheet: Appealing InspectionDecisions.

All personally identifiable information (e.g., names, phone numbers, etc.) and any corporate proprietary 

information has been redacted.

Additional information regarding humane handling can be found on the FSIS website. Please note that 

as of September 24, 2020, FSIS modified the definition of egregious inhumane treatment andupdated 

instructions to IPP. IPP are now instructedto document egregious inhumane treatment as a NR instead 

of an MOI as was the instruction prior to September 24, 2020.
Data Dictionary

Data elements are listedin the order in which they appear in the dataset.

• EstablishmentID

o Definition: A unique number identifier that is usedto identify an establishment across 

data tables in FSIS databases.

• EstablishmentNumber

o Definition: A letter/number combination uniquely identifying each establishment.

o Eachestablishment is assigneda number for each FSIS grant of inspection or approval 

for voluntary inspection. Each number is preceded by a variable prefix to indicate the 

type of grant or approval.

▪ M = Meat

▪ P = Poultry

▪ I = Imports

▪ G = Eggs

▪ V = Voluntary

o Some establishment numbers also have a suffix letter. These letters indicate different 

establishments.

o Establishments withmultiple numbers have multiple grants of inspection or approval. 

When this happens, the different numbers are joined with a ‘+’.

o Examples

▪ M1234 – The prefix ‘M’ indicates that the establishment has a meat grant. The 

‘1234’ is the numerical portion that goes with the meat grant.

▪ P1234 – The prefix ‘P’ indicates that the establishment has a poultry grant. The 

‘1234’ is the numerical portion that goes with the poultry grant.

▪ Note: If an establishment has more thanone grant or approval, the numerical 

portions may be the same, but that is not required.

• If establishment M234 has a poultry grant as well, the poultry number 

might be P234, but it could be a different number.

• If M234 has a poultry number thatis different than P234, (e.g., 

M234+P567), then P234 could be the number of a different 

establishment.

▪ M1234A and M1234B would be different establishments because theyhave 

different suffixes.

• EstablishmentName

o Definition: The name of an establishment on the FSIS grant of inspection.

• InspectionDate

o Definition: The date of the inspection task.

• InspectionTypeCategory

o Definition: A category that denotes whether the inspection wasroutine or directed.

▪ Routine: Inspectionverification activities conducted on a routine, ongoing, or 

planned basis whenever the establishment is in operation.

▪ Directed: Inspectionverification activities performed on an as-needed basis.

• ShiftTypeID

o Definition: An identifier to distinguishbetweenShift 1 and Shift 2.

o Values:

▪ 1: Shift 1

▪ 2: Shift 2
• InspectionTaskCode

o Definition: A short name given to identify an inspection task. The task code in this data 

set is ‘04C02’.

• InspectionTaskName

o Definition: The name for a given taskcode. For example, a value of ‘04C02’ represents 

tasks associated with Livestock Humane Handling.

• TaskId

o Definition: A unique identifier that is used to identify eachinspection task.

• RegsVerified

o Definition: The regulationsthat were verified in the inspection task.

• RegsVerifiedCount

o Definition: The number of regulationsthat were verified in the inspection task.

• NoncomplianceID

o Definition: A unique identifier for a specific noncompliance within a noncompliance 

record.

• NRNumber

o Definition: The noncompliance record number.

• NRRegs

o Definition: The regulations associatedwiththe specific noncompliance in the 

noncompliance record.

• NRRegsCount

o Definition: The number of regulations associatedwiththe specific noncompliance in the 

noncompliance record.

• NRDescription

o Definition: The description of the specific noncompliance within the noncompliance 

record.

• MOINumber

o Definition: The unique identifier that identifies each MOI.

• MOIDate

o Definition: The date thatthe MOI recordwas opened.

• MOIDescription

o Definition: The narrative portion of the MOI documentation.
Relationship to Other Data

The data can be combined with other FSIS datasets using the EstablishmentID variable.

Notes and Limitations

To calculate the noncompliance rate, take the sum of the NRRegsCount columnand divide it by the sum 

of the RegsVerifiedCount column.

Information about FSIS’ noncompliance reports canbe found in FSIS’ “What is a Noncompliance Report”

article. More information regarding appealing NRs can be found in Directives 13,000.3 and 5000.1 as 

well as the FSIS Fact Sheet: Appeal Inspection Decisions.

Information on the objection to the content in an MOI can be found in Directives 5000.1, 5010.1, and 

6900.2. Directive 6900.2 also provides information regarding egregious inhumane handling. Per a 

change in policy as of September 24, 2020, egregious humane handling violations are documented as a 

noncompliance record and may result in a Notice of Intended Enforcement or suspension. Information 

on official enforcement actions FSIS hastakenagainst establishmentsthat have been found in violation 

of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act is available on the FSIS website.

For data with inspection dates between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021, FSIS did not redact the 

name of Plant Managers or Owners within the NRDescription or MOIDescription field.

Datasets released July 7, 2023 and later reflect changes to FSIS' redaction guidelines that were applied to 

both Current and Archive datasets across all records. Roles (e.g., Supervisory Public Health Veterinarian, 

plant owner) and titles (e.g., Dr., Jr., Mr.) are no longer redacted.

Converting from CSV to PDF

1. Select “View” and then “Page Break Preview” from the top menu bar in Excel -or- select the 

“Page BreakPreview” icon located to the left of the “ZoomOut” slider button in the lower righthand corner of the document.

2. Move the blue vertical lines to include the desired columns for each page.

3. Move the blue horizontal lines to include the desiredrows for eachpage.

4. Select “File”.

a. Select “File” and then “Save As” from the top menu bar.

b. In the drop down, select “Save As Adobe PDF” or select “Save As” and then select PDF 

(*.pdf) from the drop-down list.

Another option to convert CSV files to PDF is to use Adobe’s PDF Converter. This enables the userto 

upload Excel files, convert the files to PDF, and to download the files onto the user’s computer.
Filtering Tips

If it is desired to only view recordsthat have a populated field for NRDescriptionor MOIDescription, 

then follow these steps:

NRDescription

1. Selectthe drop-down arrow from NRDescription.

2. Deselect “Blanks”.

3. Click “OK”.

To clearthe filter:

4. Click the drop down for NRDescription.

5. Click “Clearfilterfrom NRDescription”.

MOIDescription

1. Selectthe drop-down arrow from MOIDescription.

2. Deselect “Blanks”.

3. Click “OK”.

To clearthe filter:

4. Click the drop-down for MOIDescription.

5. Click “Clearfilterfrom MOIDescription”.

Note: It is highly recommended to filter on one field at a time.