FOOD SAFETY - QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICIAN QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICIAN - FOOD SAFETY 3 4 bigger problems that could have been avoided to begin with. Isn’t it the worst when you must go back and fix a mistake that could have been prevented in the first place? Generally, QCs have specified times to go out on the production line to inspect products. For example, some facilities require technician to check the weight of a product every hour to verify that the scales are working properly. If a technician notices an incorrectly produced product, they will inform the machine operator to perform appropriate changes. Another reason why QCs spend a lot of time on the production floor is because they perform internal audits. Audits are a mandatory part of any food safety program. 4. Quality Control Technicians Have Degrees in Science The traditional career path for someone looking to become a QC is achieving a bachelor’s degree in a program such as food science, chemistry or biology. However, there is a wide range of educational backgrounds within this field because the duties of a QC technician differ from company to company. Alternatively, some quality control technicians have college diploma’s specializing in a life science or laboratory science technician program. Other times, QC technicians may even start as production workers and take a lateral move to the QC department. However, in recent years, alternative routes have sprung up for students. Today, there are many colleges that offer certificates of achievement upon completing programs which prepare students for the role of quality control technicians. These programs help students develop knowledge and practical skills such as quality principles, standards and tools. 5. Quality Control Technicians Verify Standard Practices There are plenty of standardized practices which happen in food factories. It’s thanks to these standardized practices that you get the same crispy cookie every time. In this case a standard practice a QC may check is that the machine operator is adding the ingredients in the correct proportions and times. This could be by simple observation or by checking the documentation the operator is required to complete. Verifying standard practices isn’t just limited to keeping things clean. QCs also determine if products are made according to standard steps and staff are not skipping steps. QCs are always on the lookout for infractions! 6. Quality Control Technicians Assist in Investigating Customer Complaints Unfortunately, no matter how effective a quality program is, there will be situations when poor quality slips through. Mistakes happen. However, when these mistakes happen, customers notice and let the company know in the form of complaints. After receiving a complaint, a QC technician investigates the root cause of the complaint. For example, if a chocolate bar labeled with hazelnuts is found not to contain any hazelnuts the QC would investigate production records and check if there were any abnormalities during the day of production. Additionally, the QC will see if they have any saved retention samples from that day. Using all these tools, they find out if what the customer received was a one-off mistake or larger scale problem. 7. Quality Control Technicians Perform Swabbing However, one practice that happens in every single plant is cleaning (sanitation). Despite a workers best efforts to keep equipment they still need their cleaning to be verified. In this case, the verification would come in the form of an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing kit. It is the job of the QC to verify that the equipment was correctly cleaned and passed the ATP test. QC technicians swab a place that made contact with food and place the swab into a device called a luminometer. This measures the combined total of organic material (food residues and microbial populations) collected from a swabbed surface. If the ATP tests finds a large presence of bacteria on a surface than operations must stop production and clean the surface. 8. Quality Control Technicians Have an Attention for Detail, can Multi-task and Communicate Effectively Being a quality control technician requires a range of skills. However, there are a few which are more essential than others. These skills include: • Attention to detail – It is essential that any QC is observant and detail-oriented. When it comes to safety, they need to ensure that every safety procedure is followed through properly, even the smallest of actions. Small details can mean the difference between food produced safely and products that need to be recalled. • Multitasking – QC technicians deal with more than one task at time because of the responsibilities of their job. For example, one way they might multitask is by conducting a 60-minute test and during the waiting time, they do a quick inspection of the floor. • Effective communication skills – This can come in the form of talking with people in person or in a detailed report. QCs effectively communicate with all levels of an organization from floor worker to upper management. University of Guelph is an Education Partner of ours, check them out on FoodGrads! Click their logo below! Available Programs: Biological Science, Food Science, Microbiology, Chemistry, Honours Agriculture University of Guelph Photo by dusanpetkovic/iStock/GettyImagesPlus Photo by Morsa Images/DigitalVision/GettyImages ImageCredit: Iwawaki, Y.;Muraoka, Y.; Higashiyama, H.; Kishimoto, T.; Liu, L.; Goto, T.; Ichikawa, T. Comparison between Two Assessment Tests for Oral Hygiene: Adenosine Triphosphate + AdenosineMonophosphate Swab Test and Bacteria Number Counting by Dielectrophoretic Impedance Measurement. Dent. J. 2019, 7, 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj7010010 How can a QC tell that a piece of equipment is clean? The ATP + AMP swab test! For the following, refer to the image below: (a) The portable analysis device Lumitester, (b) The manufacturing equipment is wiped using a special cotton swab and placed in a special reaction tube (c) How much bacteria on the equipment is determined based on the “firefly principle”, in which ATP reacts with luciferin in the presence of luciferase to generate AMP and emits light. Using this ATP + AMP swab test, relative light emission (RLU) can be measured. The industry has a threshold of how much food can be on the surface of the equipment. Information and data collected from MDPI Open Access Journals. Hi! I’m Quinton, the FoodGrads Bot! For any questions please come visit me at FoodGrads.com!
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