POSITION SUMMARY:    

Reporting to the Food Safety Quality Manager, the QA Supervisor is primarily responsible for developing, implementing, communicating, and reviewing the Food Safety and Quality Assurance programs for the plant. The role ensures compliance with Corporate, Regulatory, and GFSI food safety and quality requirements. Under the direction of the Food Safety Quality Manager, the QA Supervisor oversees the Quality Department staff, ensuring compliance with company personnel and safety policies. This role provides leadership, mentoring, and guidance to Quality Technicians, assists in resolving work-related issues, trains the lab team on quality procedures and SOPs, and offers ongoing coaching and feedback. 

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:  

Food Safety: 

The QA Supervisor is responsible for monitoring the systems and controls necessary to ensure the safety of the products delivered to the consumer. This includes: 

• HACCP Program: Ensures consistent procedures and proper documentation are followed in regard to the plant CCPs, including prerequisites such as pest control, master cleaning and sanitation, vendor qualification, etc.  

• GMP Compliance: Conducts periodic GMP facility audits with corrective action follow-up.  

• Develops, implements, and conducts employee food safety and quality training. 

• Allergen Control: Ensures material segregation, equipment cleaning and product labeling to ensure undeclared allergens are not introduced into product distribution.  

• Accepts, holds, or rejects products, in-process samples and finished goods. 

• SQF: Assists in the development and implementation of supporting policies or programs. 

• Adheres to all environmental, health and safety requirements and procedures. 

• Responsible for food safety and quality. 

Quality Systems: 

The QA Supervisor is responsible for implementing and managing the systems that ensure delivered product meets or exceeds customer expectations.  This includes: 

• CQPs and QPs: Monitors final QA acceptance of production and document results on the release spreadsheet. Ensures all process QPs are met.  

• Quality Hold: Ensures that -material (raw, in process, finished or packaging) suspect or determined to not meet specification shall be placed “On Hold” in inventory and physically quarantined.   

• Promotes Product Specifications compliance during production.  

• Develops in-process and finished goods sampling and analysis sufficient to comply with specifications and standards. 

• Records and reports are to be maintained accurately and distributed in a timely manner to support process control, product release and support customer and regulatory documentation requirements. 

• Document Control: Ensures a controlled manufacturing process is in place.   

• Product Trace and Recovery: Proactively prepares for unsafe product introduced to distribution. Ensure a system is in place to rapidly identify, isolate, and recover the specific lot of material. The system shall be recorded and reported to upper management with suggestions for possible improvement. 

• Kosher Certification: Vendors shall be certified; material shall be segregated, and records shall be maintained to support label claims of product kosher status. 

• Supports CAPA initiatives and follow through.  

Quality Reporting: 

It is the responsibility of the QA Supervisor to supply timely and accurate reports of product quality data and analysis to both internal and external customers such as: 

• Certificates of Quality/Analysis/Guarantee to customers. 

• Process control information to Manufacturing. 

• Compliance reports required by regulatory agencies. 

• Quality Key Performance Indicator reports to Management. 

Regulatory Compliance: 

• Acts as a secondary contact between the company and product related regulatory agencies (FDA, State and local Health Departments and agencies licensing kosher).   

• The QA Supervisor may be assigned some environmental compliance responsibility. 

• Performs all other tasks as assigned by the Supervisor. 

COMPETENCIES:  

To perform this job successfully, the QA Supervisor must be self-motivated, able to problem solve, detail-oriented, and able to stay on task. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  

• Requires technical knowledge, food manufacturing experience and the interpersonal skills to lead and inspire not only the department staff but the whole Operations group to anticipate quality issues and drive the continuous improvement initiative. 

• Must be knowledgeable in using lab equipment and able to use reasoning and logic for data analysis. 

• Have the visual acuity and palette to evaluate product and test results. 

• Possess professional phone skills to communicate with customers, vendors, agencies, managers, etc., on routine matters. 

• The QA Supervisor will service as backup to the Food Safety Quality Manager.    

• EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: Associates degree or equivalent combination of education and experience. 

• Minimum three years in a food plant environment; prior QA experience preferred. 

• HACCP Certified. 

• PCQI Certified, preferred. 

• SQF Certified, preferred.   

• Excellent interpersonal skills. 

• Proficient Microsoft Office skills.