Food Safety and Quality Auditing & Training Specialist Position Available In Hampden, Massachusetts

Food Safety and Quality Auditing & Training Specialist Rachael’s Food Corporation – 1.0 Chicopee, MA Job Details Full-time $45,875.09 – $55,247.42 a year 1 day ago Benefits Health insurance Dental insurance 401(k) Flexible spending account Paid time off Vision insurance Qualifications Microsoft PowerPoint Bilingual French Statistics Spanish Microsoft Excel Food safety management ServSafe Bachelor of Science Regulatory compliance Lean English Other (documentation systems for food safety) GMP Mid-level Food sanitation practices 3 years Clear language communication Analysis skills Food Science Bachelor’s degree Product development HACCP Organizational skills Food safety 2 years Communication skills GFSI Compliance standards auditing FDA regulations Full Job Description Company Overview Rachael’s Food Corporation is a local USDA food manufacturing company dedicated to delivering the highest quality products to our customers. We proudly serve the convenience store industry and colleges throughout New England, ensuring that our offerings meet stringent safety and quality standards. Summary As a Food Safety Specialist at Rachael’s Food Corporation, you will play a vital role in maintaining and enhancing our food safety protocols. Developing food labels, completing technical specifications, understanding FDA and USDA labeling regulations, and vendor/ ingredient compliance and management are the roles of Rachael’s Food Corp. Technical Services department. The ideal candidate will be responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance, conducting comprehensive audits, developing tailored training programs, analyzing food safety and quality concerns, and performing data-driven analyses. This role demands an understanding of food science, regulatory standards, statistical expertise, and excellent communication skills to effectively collaborate with stakeholders at all levels within the organization.

Essential Functions Regulatory Compliance:

Ensure unwavering adherence to all pertinent regulations, including USDA, FDA, county, and local requirements. Utilize board knowledge of food science and regulatory standards to formulate and implement policies, interpretation standards, and programs ensuring global compliance. Partners with the Food Safety Team on food safety and allergen law compliance. Reviewing ingredient, nutrition labeling, and regulatory information for compliance with Federal labeling and policy regulations (i.e., FDA and USDA), other regulatory entities (i.e., Vegan, Organic certifiers, and Kosher), and customer’s private label expectations. Remaining current on Food Law, Nutrition Labeling Regulations, and nutrition trends.

Auditing:

Spearhead inspections conducted by regulatory bodies (USDA, FDA, county, and local health departments), customer-driven audits (e.g., Medina, NSF), and Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) audits (i.e., SQF) Conduct internal facility audits, including e-audits, and generate comprehensive inspection reports with actionable corrective plans. Conduct thorough vendor audits across diverse food manufacturing sectors, including warehouse, produce, meat, and baked goods to ensure federal and corporate compliance. Validate and negotiate corrective actions for all audit findings, engaging with multiple stakeholders and diligently tracking their completion.

Training:

Design and implement comprehensive Food Safety and Quality training programs for Retail manuals. Serve as a corporate trainer, delivering training through various platforms (in-person, virtual, multimedia) while monitoring unit progress for internal training and certifications (e.g., HACCP, SERV Safe, SQF). Keep food safety training requirements up to date.

Continuous Improvement:

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for waste reduction, process optimization, and productivity improvement. Utilize data collection tools and methods to ensure accurate and comprehensive data gathering. Perform in-depth analysis of collected data to identify trends, risks, patterns, and insights such as environmental monitoring programs and customer complaints. Transform complex data into actionable insights and recommendations that impact company strategies and decision-making.

Support and Technical Expertise:

Create and maintain all customer-required technical forms. Communicate effectively and efficiently with customers on their technical subjects (nutrition, ingredients, allergens, and components). Analyze the nutrition of finished products and R D iterations. Create finished product labels and manage the proofing of said labels to ensure label compliance with the law. Manages the ingredient information (specs, allergens) for the facilities. Collect ingredients and vendor files for vendor management requirements. Reviews ingredients for costumer’s requirements. Approves ingredient substitutions. Works closely with Culinary and the wider R D team on projects including participating in team meetings. Reviewing artwork/packaging before finalizing to ensure accuracy and regulatory compliance. Offer subject matter expertise to customers and cross-functional teams, contributing to the development of business initiatives and opportunities for implementation of Lean principles. Collaborate with internal technical groups, procurement, R D, FSQ, and other functions to resolve complex food regulatory compliance or science-based technical issues. Conduct research studies, including new product development, shelf-life studies, sensory testing, microbiological studies, and equipment and process validation studies. Apply computer-modeling techniques to simulate pathogen dynamics and behavior. Leverage nutritional databases (e.g. Food Label Maker and Genesis) to support product development initiatives to meet sensory and quality attribute metrics within project timelines. Skills and Qualifications BS in Food Science, Food Nutrition, or a related field of study. Knowledge and skills in Food Quality, Food Analysis, Food Engineering, Food Technology, Food Chemistry, Food Safety, Flavor Technology, Sensory Evaluation, and advanced Statistics are preferred. Bilingual proficiency preferred (Spanish or French) A willingness and ability to travel 50% or more of the time, as well as work overtime and on weekends (when necessary) is required.

Relevant certifications:

HACCP, Seafood

HACCP, PCQI, SQF, SERV

Safe Practitioner, and Lean Training. Familiarity with Food Product Development processes. Basic knowledge of Food Safety, Food regulations, and Food Labeling. Strong computer software proficiency; Microsoft Excel, ESHA Genesis Software (e.g. Food Label Maker), and Label Matrix. Excellent communication skills. Experience with communication with vendors and/or customers; ability to request specific information.

Excellent organizational skills:

ability to multi-task and work according to a timeline. Detail-oriented, self-driven team player that works collaboratively and flexibly. Must be able to complete technical writing and presentations (i.e. PowerPoint) is required. Strong communication and interpersonal skills. Work Environment This position operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses office equipment. Physical Demands The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and/or listen. This employee frequently is required to sit and stand for long periods of time; and reach with hands and arms. Other Duties Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice. If you are passionate about food safety and quality assurance, we invite you to apply today and help us maintain our high standards at Rachael’s Food Corporation!

Job Type:

Full-time Pay:

$45,875.09 – $55,247.42 per year

Benefits:

401(k) Dental insurance Flexible spending account Health insurance Paid time off Vision insurance

Schedule:

Monday to Friday Weekends as needed Shift availability: Day Shift (Preferred) Ability to

Commute:

Chicopee, MA 01013 (Required) Ability to

Relocate:

Chicopee, MA 01013: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location:

In person