Quality Control Technician

POSITION SUMMARY

The Quality Control Technician is responsible for performing inspections, conducting product evaluations, and ensuring compliance with food safety and quality standards. This role involves daily monitoring of equipment, ingredients, and finished products to identify potential risks and maintain quality assurance within the production and packaging processes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Equipment & Facility Inspections

• Conduct pre-shift inspections of packaging and bakery equipment, including mixers, belts, containers, food contact surfaces, and measuring tools to ensure proper cleanliness and functionality.
• Perform inspections after each production changeover to verify cleanliness and compliance with sanitation protocols.
• Perform daily inspections of machinery for damaged parts, contamination risks, and proper functioning, documenting findings and reporting to the QC Supervisor.
• Conduct swabbing of bakery equipment and mixers for gluten and allergen residue to ensure food safety compliance.

Product Quality Assessments

• Perform physical measurements of bases (weights, thickness, dimensions, icing percentage).
• Conduct sensory and visual evaluations of bases, crème, and finished products for consistency.
• Conduct chemical analysis of bases to determine moisture percentage.
• Perform hourly checks on raw dough weight and oven speed to verify production consistency.
• Conduct water activity tests on crème to assess product integrity.

Packaging & Labeling Verification

• Conduct visual inspections to verify proper packaging, coding, and labeling based on product profiles.
• Perform physical measurements of finished product package weights to ensure accuracy.
• Monitor percentage of breakage, overlapping, and defective products, documenting findings.
• Collect retain samples for shelf-life monitoring, first-day production evaluation, and customer approvals.
• Collect finished product samples for laboratory testing, ensuring adherence to internal and customer quality standards.

Food Safety & GMP Compliance

• Verify correct formula usage against production schedules, ensuring ingredient accuracy.
• Perform lot number verification of recorded ingredients to confirm proper ingredient usage.
• Conduct daily inspections of ingredients for contamination risks (odor, appearance, color, condition).
• Confirm correct ingredients brought to the production area by the Shipping Department, ensuring quality compliance.
• Oversee daily monitoring of rework and work-in-progress, ensuring documentation and reporting of findings.
• Conduct hourly metal detector (CCP) checks, documenting results and investigating any positive metal findings.
• Issue incident reports or hold reports for non-compliant product, packaging, food safety violations, and GMP infractions.
• Ensure operators follow proper GMP practices, food handling procedures, and hygiene standards throughout production.

Regulatory & Compliance Tasks

• Ensure correct placement and removal of allergen, gluten-free, and organic alert signs when required.
• Monitor daily cooler temperatures, documenting compliance records.
• Inspect and document flour sifter tailings, verifying standard compliance.
• Oversee collection of oil retain samples used in production, ensuring documentation and quality tracking.
• Review metal detection findings and incident reports, ensuring corrective actions are implemented.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Quality Assurance or a related field.
• At least 1-3 years of experience in food manufacturing or quality control.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)
• Strong understanding of GMP, HACCP, FSMA, CFIA, FDA food safety regulations.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Strong attention to detail: Spotting errors in ingredients, packaging, and labeling.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Identifying defects, contamination risks, and reporting issues.
• Record Keeping: Accurately documenting inspections, test results, and incidents.
• Strong communication skills to coordinating with production teams and reporting findings clearly.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Must be comfortable working in a hot environment (Bakery floor)
• Sensory Demands: Strong visual acuity to identify defects, keen smell and taste when evaluating ingredients or final products.
• Standing & Walking: Prolonged periods on the production floor conducting inspections.
• Lifting & Carrying: Occasionally lifting product samples and equipment (up to 25-50 lbs).
• Manual Dexterity: Handling testing equipment, swabbing, documenting findings.
• Bending & Reaching: Inspecting equipment, accessing materials, verifying packaging processes.
• Exposure to Elements: Working in environments with varying temperatures (hot bakery areas, cool storage areas).

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $25.03 per hour

Work Location: In person