Food Safety Manager Europe

About the Role

The Food Safety Manager Europe is responsible for keeping abreast of changes in technology and processes and ensuring compliance for the facilities in the Europe region to BC food safety policies, standards, and procedures as needed to ensure that regulatory, GFSI certification and customer requirements concerning food safety are achieved or exceeded. The Food Safety Manager Europe is a regional subject matter expert about Microbiology, Sanitation, Sanitary Hygienic Design, Hygienic Zoning, Environmental Monitoring, Allergens and Toxicology food safety risks.

The Food Safety Manager Europe links and collaborates with Plant QA managers, Engineering, Plant managers, Regional R&D, Regional OSCO VP, Global Account manager, Business Development Director, Regional Quality director, Global Head Food Safety and microbiology, Global Engineering, Global Microbiology, Global QA (Vendor & Rawmat), Sanitation & Hygiene managers, and with similar stakeholders from all the other regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, Cocoa). Externally with external customers, training organizations, suppliers, and service providers including but not limited to pest control operators, metal detector manufacturers, sanitarians, and industry consultants.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Drive improvement in food safety standards

• Developing, improving, and maintaining food safety standards and guidelines based on industry best practices, GFSI standards, and customer requirements.
• Collaborating in the development and review of global food safety standards (e.g. GMP, allergens, food safety policy).

• Coordinate, audit , and review implementation of food safety and GSFI standards

• Coordinate the auditing of sites in the region against corporate and regional QMS standards, GFSI standards, and customer requirements. Providing an overview of main issues (food safety) arising in the factories, identifying areas of concern, and proposing improvement actions.
• Audit the sites and inform the relevant local and regional staff of audit findings.
• Working with Operations/QA/Maintenance to address audit issues and agreeing with local and regional teams on corrective actions, including food safety investments.

• Drive and support the Implementation of new or improved standards

• Driving the implementation of BC and GSFI standards and procedures and training local management in food safety requirements.
• Supporting facilities for compliance with key customer requirements and BC standards, supporting food safety crises (e.g. allergen issues, CCP failures).
• Driving continuous improvement of the systems by sharing best practices among sites and providing food safety support
• Identifying and communicating food safety risks to the sites, and providing advice on food safety programs.
• Coordinating gap assessments of global food safety policies in the region, in the frame of a Global Standardization Framework project, to identify capex/opex/documentation-related gaps in the sites and provide support.Working with Global QA and Engineering in defining the scope and format for compliance summary reporting.

• Provide expertise and support by partnering with R&D, Supply Chain, Customer Service and Procurement

• Ensure the application of risk assessments in the development of ingredients, products, and processes to help identify solutions. Ensure food safety is engaged in the process and develop appropriate training for R&D
• Author Statements related to Food Safety as and when required
• Lead specific Food Safety Projects, as and when required
• Support in Issue Management, as and when required
• Provide support for emerging challenges and provide technical solutions
• Continuously improve own food safety-related knowledge

• Audit, exchange information, and support, on all questions related to food safety (global policies, FSSC 22000 implementation)
• Ensure sharing of best practices
• Draft, contribute, and review global, regional, and local standards
• Lead regional projects to improve food safety standards
• Understand EMP programs and how to design, assess, and improve
• Give guidance to factories during incidents

About You

• Master's degree in Microbiology, Food Science, Food Engineering, or equivalent
• Formal training in HACCP
• Advanced training in Microbiology, Sanitation, and Sanitary Design
• PCQI certification
• Fluent in English, and other languages an asset
• Travel requirements: 50%
• 10+ years experience at a GFSI-certified food manufacturer
• Experience in communicating with customers, auditors, and regulatory agencies.
• Experience performing audits of internal and external food safety audits for facilities/suppliers
• Experience working with the design and implementation of food safety plans/programs.
• Experience with Root Cause Analysis and Continuous Improvement
• Experience working with, designing, and implementing Environmental Monitoring Programs
• 7+ years of experience in Quality Assurance and Food Safety in an international food, pharmaceutical, or feed company 
• Experience in auditing
• Project Management
• Knowledge of Food Safety Management, HACCP management, Hygiene, GMPs (Hygiene practices, Sanitation, Environmental Monitoring, etc), and GFSI certification schemes (BRC, FSSC 22000).
• Drive to deliver, taking initiative, and strong leadership skills
• Compliance focus
• Internal and external customer focus
• Transversal managerial skills (sharing knowledge and experience)
• Being an effective communicator, navigating through different audiences
• Team spirit
• Change Management, as a key driver