FOOD SAFETY - QUALITY ASSURANCE TECHNICIAN QUALITY ASSURANCE TECHNICIAN - FOOD SAFETY 7 8 6. Quality Assurance Technicians Complete a lot of Paperwork In food manufacturing plants, there is a fair amount of tracking involved. From the moment an ingredient is delivered to a manufacturing facility to the time it exits every where it moves it is tracked. Extensive ingredient tracking occurs because if a food safety/quality issue were to arise then the food affected could be identified. Quality assurance create documents which are used by all production staff. These checklists may be performed through a tablet or an “old school” pencil and paper. Typical pieces of information that these documents track are: • When raw ingredients enter the plant. • When machinery and equipment is cleaned. • Quality checks of in-progress products. It is up to QA to not only develop the documents that people use for tracking, but also make sure that people are correctly using them. 7. Quality Assurance Technicians Receive Many Great Perks There are a lot of amazing aspects to working in quality assurance. Firstly, you gain an in-depth understanding of complex organizations. When preventing quality defects, quality assurance looks at all aspects of an organization from the role of management to the daily habits of production staff. This provides them with a strong idea of what goes on at every level within an organization. Secondly, working as a quality assurance technician makes you a visible face within an organization. Although all jobs in a food plant have a degree of visibility, there is something slightly different with QA. People become aware of you. Production staff constantly speak with you and you become the face of the organization with outside auditors. Having these opportunities is a great way to meet people and network. 8. Quality Assurance Technicians are Problem Solvers, Detail-Oriented, and Effective Communicators Being a quality assurance professional requires a wide range of skills however there are a few which are more essential than others. These skills include: • Problem Solving – Quality assurance is always looking for ways to prevent problems before they happen. This requires imagining potential quality issues, generating multiple solutions and the implementing the solution so the problem never happens in the first place! • Detail-Oriented – A QA can’t mess up on any documentation because it could lead to a non-conformance issue during an audit. They need to ensure every safety procedure is followed through properly right to the smallest detail. At the end of the day, their attention to detail is what protects the consumer. • Communication – Although they might spend a lot of time behind a computer, QA professionals work with a wide range of people. If a problem occurs, they must be able to effectively communicate with staff different levels of educational and work experience. If a person doesn’t understand the problem and solution, how can they ever fix it? In many smaller companies the food safety/ quality department is smaller to reflect of the size of the company. Therefore, a QA technician might take on the roles of both a QC and QA. That’s why you might catch these technicians testing products, updating regulatory documentation and performing audits. In a larger company, it is rare to find a specialist working in the lab, testing samples. Instead, they spend a lot of time at their computer following up on non-conformance issues, updating quality documentation and updating supplier specification programs. 3. Quality Assurance Technicians Have Science Degrees The traditional career path for the aspiring QA is achieving a bachelor’s degree in programs such as chemistry, biology or food science. However, an alternative pathway is to attend a college and complete a degree in quality assurance, regulatory affairs or food technology. There is a wide range of educational backgrounds within this field because the duties of a QA tech differ from company to company. Sometimes QA technicians even start as production floor workers and eventually end up in the lab. 4. Quality Assurance Technicians are Knowledgeable About GMPs and HACCP Understanding and maintaining organizational standards of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) are essential duties for any QA. Additionally, QA technicians have a strong understanding of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), an internationally recognized system for reducing the risk of safety hazards in food. HACCP is all about the identification of hazards and controlling them before and during production. Because QAs are concerned with stopping quality defects before they happen, they are very familiar with this system. Overall, understanding these systems becomes second nature to a QA – so much so that they could recite them back by memory. They know to always stay on top of the latest food safety news because food safety regulations are always changing. 5. Quality Assurance Technicians See the Bigger Picture It is up to Quality Assurance to “look into the future” and predict potential problems which might occur. For example, all manufacturing plants should have a plan in place for recalling food products should a food safety risk be identified. A recall happens when a product is deemed unsafe for the market after being distributed already to stores. QA’s have plans in place with the exact set of steps that must be taken should this occur. Of course, they never want this to happen but QA techs do not let infringements occur with a backup plan in place. GMPs are a set of practices that ensure that products are consistently produced under safe conditions. QAs make sure that staff follow GMPs and that manufacturing plants are up to standards that reduce the possibility of defected product. Check out Episode 25 of the FoodGrads Podcast where Veronica interviews a Quality Assurance Analyst. What does a day in the life of an Assurance Analyst look like? How did our guest find herself in this line of work? Click the photo to tune in! Centennial College is an Education Partner of ours, check them out on FoodGrads! Click their logo below! Available Programs: Food Science Technology, Nutrition and Food Service Management, Biotechnology Centennial College Generally, the distinction between a QA and QC is that quality assurance focuses on preventing defects in food while quality control ensures quality after the product has been manufactured. Simply put, QA ensures quality before production while QC ensures quality during and after production. Photo by MEDITERRANEAN/E+/GettyImages Photo by andresr/E+/GettyImages
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