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Typical Work Day for Food Safety/Quality Personnel

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Mark.V

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Posted 19 December 2019 - 07:21 PM

Hello everyone,

 

I was just curious what a typical work day looks like for all of you food safety and/or quality personnel? What tasks do you take on?

 

I have been with my company for only 8 months. In those 8 months it was my job to get us SQF Certified. Now that that area has been complete I must maintain the system. Since it is a small company, some days are slower than others and I find myself wondering what I should do next. Don't get me wrong, I am aware there are always  continuous improvements to be made to the documents or on the floor, but I do find myself stuck and wondering if I am missing something??

 

I appreciate your comments!

 

Mark



dstout

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Posted 19 December 2019 - 08:38 PM

Hi Mark! Happy Holidays!

 

I would work on you in-house audits and try refining your programs i.e. every month pick a pre-requisite like pest management or food defense or crisi management. It's always good to be performing verification and validation on these programs, on your CCPs and on your food safety plans. 

 

Hope this helps, cheers!



KSMFF

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Posted 19 December 2019 - 09:35 PM

Hi Mark,

 

In my role as the SQF practitioner, I handle customer document requests, fill out supplier approval forms, write statements, organize COAs and other documents from our suppliers, organize our internal documents and come up with better methods of organizing product information, handle consumer complaints, answer my team's technical questions, do R&D and NPD projects, and work with the sales team to provide customers with documents and information about potential products as well as answer their product questions. I do a lot of cross-functioning in my role as I am in a small office. Hope that gives you an idea of what is possible. 



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Juribe

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Posted 19 December 2019 - 11:14 PM

Mark V.,

 

Sounds like we are both in similar positions. I am with a medium-sized company that is SQF certified. After taking over the QA Manager position I spent about 6-months revising the entire food safety program. Previously the documents were poorly done and were very difficult to find/comprehend. I took it upon myself to update each document for ease-of-use and comprehension. Now that I am almost done with this task I will probably move on to revising the internal audit program, and force myself to continue updating programs/policies until they are 100% solid and complete. When I am not working on documents updates, I am either reviewing quality documents, answering supplier questionnaires, reviewing new product labels, or managing the food safety system (pest control, sampling, complaints, etc.). I do agree with you though, some days can be pretty slow.



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Mark.V

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Posted 20 December 2019 - 02:15 PM

Hi Mark! Happy Holidays!

 

I would work on you in-house audits and try refining your programs i.e. every month pick a pre-requisite like pest management or food defense or crisi management. It's always good to be performing verification and validation on these programs, on your CCPs and on your food safety plans. 

 

Hope this helps, cheers!

I have something similar set up for the new year, so I think I will follow through with that. I have sections of the food safety manual delegated to each month for review/verification. This helps to know I am on the right track.

 

 

Hi Mark,

 

In my role as the SQF practitioner, I handle customer document requests, fill out supplier approval forms, write statements, organize COAs and other documents from our suppliers, organize our internal documents and come up with better methods of organizing product information, handle consumer complaints, answer my team's technical questions, do R&D and NPD projects, and work with the sales team to provide customers with documents and information about potential products as well as answer their product questions. I do a lot of cross-functioning in my role as I am in a small office. Hope that gives you an idea of what is possible. 

That sounds like a pretty good day! I am hoping to encourage my company to develop or provide more products to customers since it will give me more things to work on, improve and help the company grow (I never thought I would want more work!). We sell processed raw produce... so not a whole lot of R&D going on. I know we are going to be extending our equipment and getting a metal detector so some changes and expansions are underway. What are NPD projects? 

 

 

Mark V.,

 

Sounds like we are both in similar positions. I am with a medium-sized company that is SQF certified. After taking over the QA Manager position I spent about 6-months revising the entire food safety program. Previously the documents were poorly done and were very difficult to find/comprehend. I took it upon myself to update each document for ease-of-use and comprehension. Now that I am almost done with this task I will probably move on to revising the internal audit program, and force myself to continue updating programs/policies until they are 100% solid and complete. When I am not working on documents updates, I am either reviewing quality documents, answering supplier questionnaires, reviewing new product labels, or managing the food safety system (pest control, sampling, complaints, etc.). I do agree with you though, some days can be pretty slow.

Yes we are very much in the same boat! It is comforting to know that I am not alone in this. This is my first position taking on a food safety system so I was not given much direction or expectation of what my day to day would entail. 

 

Thank you all for the responses, they help a lot! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! :)  

 

Mark



Mark.V

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Posted 20 December 2019 - 02:30 PM

PS. I just realized NPD probably stands for new product development.... :whistle:



Hoosiersmoker

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Posted 08 January 2020 - 04:27 PM

Our system contains 106 system and corporate documents (it used to be over 170!) and I am still combining / eliminating. Each needs to be reviewed annually on a schedule and / or after any change to processes. I have them divided between 12 months on schedules (Internal Audit and Review).  Continuous improvement is a cornerstone of a good Food Safety program, so I keep a running list of items that arise and refer to it weekly to see where we can improve. Subjects and items from internal audits and Team meetings go on a separate list and those are also reviewed weekly for improvements. In addition to Food Safety compliance, I am also a purchaser and Safety Manager. My problem is I would like to shed one of my responsibilities as I don't feel I can excel at any of them (as long as my pay doesn't change! :rofl2:





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