FOOD SAFETY - QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICIAN 2 1 FOOD SAFETY Quality Control Technician Everyone has a favourite packaged product. One that delivers the same taste and texture every single time. Perhaps for you it’s crunchy cookie that always softens perfectly when you dunk it in milk. In the industry we say if a product meets or exceeds a customer’s expectations then it’s passed a series of quality controls. Quality control is a set of measures or steps that ensures a consistently good product. Quality attributes include size, colour, taste and bacterial counts. The professionals who check to see if products pass quality checks are known as Quality Control (QC) Technicians. However, in some smaller companies, a technician might take on the role’s of both QC and Quality Assurance due to limited staff. That’s why you might catch these professionals testing products in the morning and updating food safety plans in the afternoon. 1. Quality Control Technicians Ensure Food Quality and Safety The core of a QC’s job is making sure that products are being produced correctly according to company and governmental standards and regulations. They perform biological tests (e.g. Salmonella) and quality tests (e.g. sugar levels) at specified stages in the production process. If a product fails to pass a control point, the product is placed on hold and production of the product stops until a decision is made. QC technicians spend a lot of their time on the production floor verifying whether products are being made correctly. They complete checklists to confirm that food safety and regulatory compliance programs are being followed accordingly. A common quality control check verifying that best before dates are correctly being printed on food packaging. If a nonconformance occurs a QC will investigate what happened for this to happen, how to fix the problem and how to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future. Additionally, QC technicians perform internal audits – internal assessments that determine if a manufacturing facility is following food safety regulations. Assessments could include: • Checking if employees are following good manufacturing practices (GMPs). • Inspecting the building walls for cracks. • Verifying paperwork is being completed properly. Finally, QC technicians perform administrative duties such as maintaining records, forms and logs, including computer databases and inventory checks. 2. Quality Control Technicians Perform Lab Work To uphold the quality and safety of food, QC technicians conduct analytical, microbiological and sensory testing for both in-process and finished product samples. They use approved standard operating procedures (SOPs) and notify the quality supervisor of any deviations from the product specifications. For example, a QC technician working in a butter factory might be tasked with determining the fat content of a butter using the Gerber test. If they find that the butter has insufficient fat content, they tell the production manager to increase the amount of butter fat being used. Alternatively, aQC technician in a yogurt factory may check to see if Salmonella spp. is present in their product by completing a polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. 3. Quality Control Technicians Spend a Lot of Time on the Production Floor QC technicians assist production workers in detecting and solving problems in real time. By catching problems just as they occur, they prevent unnecessary time spent correcting Quality Control Technician Ensuring that products are upholding quality and food safety standards Veronica (the author of this book) has experienced firsthand what it is like to intern as a QC Technician at Gay Lea Foods. Click the photo to read the full story!
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