Meet Cristina Matei - FSS Official Veterinarian

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has started a new recruitment campaign to encourage more qualified veterinarians to consider becoming an Official Veterinarian (OV). The following blog from FSS OV Cristina Matei details what she enjoys about working in the public sector.

I completed my veterinary medicine studies in 2005 at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest in Romania.

In 2011, my husband and I decided to relocate our family to Scotland for better opportunities and a better life for our children.

I joined FSS in 2019 and currently work as a mobile OV, which means that every day I may be based at a different approved meat premises.

As OVs, we are there to ensure that approved meat premises are following the relevant legal requirements for food safety and animal health and welfare, in other words ensuring that meat produced is safe to eat and animals are treated humanely throughout the abattoir operations.

One aspect of the job that I am most passionate about is that I make a real contribution towards safeguarding the welfare of animals and I ensure that the process from farm to fork is as smooth as possible for them.

Working part of FSS has given me more job stability, a better work-life balance and, thinking long-term, the pension package is certainly much better than private practice.

In FSS there is also greater emphasis on staff training, relevant continuous professional development and there is also the potential to ‘climb the ladder’ through promotion.

The OV role is suitable to a dynamic vet, with excellent communication skills, as the work requires close engagement with internal and external stakeholders.

My advice to someone considering becoming an OV is that regardless of what stage of your career you are in, it is a great experience. It is a really important job and you feel as if you are truly contributing to something greater than yourself.