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Job Summary:
The Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist is responsible for ensuring product quality and regulatory compliance throughout the production process. This role involves conducting detailed inspections, grading products, implementing corrective actions for non-compliances, and ensuring proper sanitation and food safety measures are followed. The QA Specialist works closely with plant personnel to ensure that production practices meet state and federal regulations, and that products are safe, consistent, and of the highest quality.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Serve as the officially designated contact between plant management, employees, and other stakeholders. Communicate decisions and work with staff to obtain corrections in sanitation, processing, or storage conditions. Provide guidance and explain grading activities and ensure coordination between grading/inspection activities and plant operations.
• Monitor the plant and processing operations to ensure compliance with state regulations. Ensure all eggs, both inline and incoming, meet state regulations, including labeling and dating requirements. Ensure that the Administrator receives and reviews all verification records by the end of each day.
• Accurately grade, inspect, certify, and review products according to established regulations, specifications, guidelines, and policies, maintaining a 95% accuracy rate based on supervisory assessment.
• In shell egg plants, verify that only approved chemicals, insecticides, and rodenticides are used, that products are labeled with approved labels, and that inedible products are appropriately identified and controlled.
• Prepare and maintain various reports and records related to plant production data, grading results, certificates issued, and other administrative information.
• Examine shell eggs for quality factors such as weight, color, soundness, shell texture, yolk clarity, and albumen firmness, ensuring they meet established standards and regulations.
• Ensure proper egg cleaning, cartooning, and packaging. Take responsibility for final grade determination in accordance with official standards.
• Examine products to verify conformance with approved contract specifications, such as grade, weight, packaging, and quantity. Prepare and issue certificates as required.
• Properly retain and control products that do not conform to established requirements, ensuring at least 95% accuracy in this process.
• Meet a minimum 95% average accuracy in product comparatives used to assess technical ability. Ensure appropriate and efficient sampling of products. Correct and document all incidents of insufficient sampling.
• Conduct pre-operative sanitation inspections and document findings according to established procedures. Ensure that corrective actions are properly followed up and incidents are kept to a minimum.
• Accurately identify non-compliances and require corrective actions for critical and non-critical items.
• Address food defense and food security concerns, relying on customer feedback and supervisory assessments to measure effectiveness.
• Identify and correct any safety hazards in the work environment, adhering to safety policies and bio-security protocols. Ensure compliance with safety regulations. Major violations are immediately reported with corrective actions taken.
• Ensure that the plant facilities, equipment, and processing procedures are adequate and in compliance with regulations and product handbooks, based on supervisory assessments.
• For plants handling EB or US stamped products, perform visual inspections of stamped eggs to ensure proper certification. If there is a continual frequency of stamps missing or incorrect, pause the production line, inform maintenance/management, and resume operations once the issue is resolved. Trace back boxes to the last verified timestamp if necessary.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Strong knowledge of food safety regulations and industry standards.
• Ability to make swift decisions and implement corrective actions based on inspections and non-compliance reports.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to identify defects and inconsistencies in products.
• Strong communication skills for reporting findings and collaborating with management.
• Ability to work independently, take initiative, and manage multiple tasks effectively.
• Familiarity with product grading, inspection, and certification processes specific to the egg industry.

Education/Experience:

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in a related field (e.g., Food Science, Engineering, or Quality Control) is preferred.
• Previous experience in quality control, manufacturing, or food production is preferred. Familiarity with quality control systems and techniques is highly beneficial.
• Certification in quality control (e.g., Six Sigma, HACCP) is a plus.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to sit, stand, and walk for extended periods of time during inspections and report preparation.
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds, particularly when handling product samples or materials.
• Ability to use standard quality control tools, including measuring instruments, testing equipment, and computers.
• Ability to walk around the production floor and plant area to monitor processes and inspect products.
• Ability to work in varying temperatures and conditions that may be present on the production floor.
• Ability to focus on and identify small details when conducting inspections and examinations of products.