Food Safety & Quality Specialist

Key Responsibilities

• Verify compliance with company standards, customer requirements, GMPs, HACCP plans, Preventive Controls, SSOPs, USDA, FDA (including Egg Safety Rule), and state regulations.
• Support implementation and maintenance of HACCP, SQF and prerequisite programs.
• Interface with USDA inspection personnel as needed.
• Identify out-of-compliance situations, initiate corrective actions, and verify completion and effectiveness.
• Support traceability exercises, mock recalls, and crisis response activities.

Shell Egg & Liquid Egg Processing Oversight

• Perform routine verification activities in shell egg grading and/or packing operations including cooler checks, sanitation verification, label verification, and defect monitoring.
• Conduct oversight and weekly verification within liquid egg breaking and pasteurization processes including CCP monitoring, process verification and finished product release activities.
• Perform operational sanitation inspections and operational GMP audits.
• Review and audit records for accuracy and completeness.

Laboratory, Testing & Environmental Monitoring

• Conduct physical, chemical, and microbiological testing.
• Support sampling programs for finished products, water, and environmental surfaces.
• Maintain laboratory documentation, calibration records, and testing logs.
• Analyze and trend microbiological and process data to identify risks and improvement opportunities.

Animal Welfare, Biosecurity & Feed Safety

• Participate in audits of animal welfare, biosecurity, and feed safety/quality programs.
• Verify compliance with animal welfare standards, handling practices, and documentation requirements.
• Support biosecurity protocols including site access controls, sanitation barriers, and compliance monitoring.
• Auxiliary in auditing birds, housing conditions, egg handling practices, and feed supply programs as applicable.
• Communicate animal welfare or biosecurity concerns to management promptly.

SQF & Audit Support

• Support implementation and maintenance of SQF programs.
• Prepare documentation and records for regulatory, third-party, and customer audits.
• Aid in root cause analysis and corrective action documentation following audit findings.

Training & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Train and reinforce food safety, quality, animal welfare, biosecurity, and personnel safety standards with production, sanitation, and live production teams as needed.
• Communicate effectively with site management, corporate FSQ leadership, production, milling, and live operations teams.

Data Management & Reporting

• Perform data entry, analysis, trending, and reporting of quality and food safety metrics.
• Maintain graphs, reports, and documentation to support compliance and management review.
• Compile and communicate findings to FSQ leadership and site management.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Quality, Food, or Biological Sciences or equivalent experience is preferred.
• SQF (Required within 6 months of employment if not already held).
• HACCP (Required within 6 months of employment if not already held).
• Internal Audit (Required within 6 months of employment if not already held).
• Animal Welfare or biosecurity training a plus.
• 2-3 years of experience in egg processing or food production or similar experience.
• Experience in Food Processing or Pharmaceuticals or related product safety and quality programs.