Hello Simon,
Thank you for your reply. I am looking for work particularly in the food safety and or Quality Assurance. I would love to get into Auditing conducting 3rd party audits and work for auditing companies that way. I have over 2 1/2 years experience working for the food industry int he Food Safety and Quality Assurance area. I have a certification from LRQA conducting internal audits using ISO 9001 standard. I am also familiar with the SQF standard, FSSC 22000, ISO 22000 and the MARS standards. I am thinking of taking a HACCP Certification. I do have Bachelors in Microbiology, Genetics and Chemistry and Masters in Food Production and Management.
I do know for SQF auditors have to have a minimum of 5 years experience in the food sector categories that they want to audit, in addition to having a certain number of external audit hours and auditor training through SQFI. Here's a link to the criteria specifics for that: [link]
As for HACCP training, I really recommend that you do that, particularly because the SQF scheme incorporates HACCP. I recently took AIB Interantional's online HACCP course, and while some parts are incredibly tedious, I was able to go at my own pace and cruise through it quickly (link).
And job-wise, I follow several food and packaging companies on LinkedIn, and I do remember seeing a few QA-related job postings on their pages. My advice would be to follow the large companies (Kraft, General Mills, Nestle, Pepsi, Mondelez, ConAgra, etc.) and check their LinkedIn pages or company websites. Also, try looking for recruiters that work in the food industry.
Good luck in your search!