Hi everyone!
Some time ago, I was already active on this forum and did a lot of reading, but now I'm back with a new account and a new job.
I thought it would be nice to share my adventures in the world of QA—it's been quite a rollercoaster for me!
I’ve been working in QA for just over three years now. My educational background is in nutrition and dietetics, and I spent about 15 years working in retail (dietary supplements). When COVID hit, I decided to make a career switch—I was tired of working in retail and operating far below my potential.
Still unsure of my own abilities, I started out at the very bottom: as an intern at a startup trading company in food supplements. I began working on specification management and formula development. At that time, the company was already planning for its initial IFS Broker certification, and the QA manager was also quite new to the field. Through a connection, we were given a quality manual that was supposedly "IFS Broker compliant." It turned out not to be—the manual was a copy from another company, and we discovered just two months before the audit that it had the wrong scope.
In those two months, we did our best to rewrite all the procedures based on the IFS Broker standard. We had a two-day remote audit. Day one was brutal… I’ll never forget it. That was my first real experience with how audits can go. On day two, we explained our situation in more detail, and the auditor became more understanding and even started explaining things to us. Despite quite a few non-conformities and a substantial corrective action plan, we achieved certification with a score of 90-ish.
Shortly after that, my colleague left, and I became solely responsible for QA.
Over the following year, I immersed myself in QA, GFSI standards, and everything that comes with them. We also underwent several customer audits, which taught me a lot.
We passed the follow-up IFS Broker audit with a "higher level" rating, and the year after that we opened a production site that needed to be IFS Food certified. We managed to achieve that too—but honestly, all of it happened way too fast. That’s the downside of working at a startup.
My bosses were all young and eager to grow and expand as quickly as possible. But speed and quality—especially on a tight budget—don’t always go hand in hand. I found myself constantly rewriting procedures to match the whims of sales and purchasing. Whenever an opportunity was spotted, it had to be seized immediately, even if that meant deviating from procedures. I often had to bend over backwards to make sure quality and documentation aligned with reality. Aside from QA, I also took on responsibilities for regulatory affairs and product development. It was intense, but I have to say—I learned a lot from that experience.
About a month ago, I started my current job as a QHSE Coordinator at a large packer of fresh produce, which also manufactures its own packaging materials. The company also has a sister company that processes rejected or surplus vegetables into pasta sauces—a great example of food waste reduction and circular production, which I find really inspiring.
We are certified with IFS, BRCGS, BRCGS Packaging Materials, and several other standards. It’s a completely different scope, but I feel at home here. The company is much more established and mature compared to where I came from, which brings a welcome sense of structure and stability. That said, it also comes with its own set of challenges.
I really enjoy diving into legislation, and packaging regulations in particular are a hot topic right now and constantly evolving.
I hope to continue learning a lot from this forum!
