Specialist, Health and Safety

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Position Summary:_

Food Safety: Proactive role that leads on-site compliance to food safety, quality, customer and regulatory requirements. Responsible for divisional food safety and quality activities such as audits, inspections, employee training and HACCP execution. Acts as primary regulatory liaison to the DC, and supports the National Food Safety and Quality Assurance team as requested to assist in recalls. Ensures DC is actively managing withdrawals, and complaint investigations to identify and quarantine non-conforming inventory. Informs divisional staff and leadership of quality and food safety initiatives, activities, and challenges and uses critical thinking skills and technical expertise to provide informed recommendations for issue resolution and continuous improvement.

Health and Safety: Responsible for providing site operational leadership with technical expertise and support to conform with federal and provincial HSE applicable legislation while mitigating operational risks and hazards through program development and maintenance, training and trend analysis. By performing regular audits / inspections, producing action plans, identifying key risks, training, developing programs, increasing general awareness, and proactively engaging and partnering with all site employees, continuous improvement and the effectiveness of the site’s Health and Safety program is achieved.
- FOOD SAFETY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Responsible for execution and efficacy of food safety regulatory compliance programs at the DC (e.g., Food Safety Plan, US Seafood HACCP, Canada Romaine Import Requirement, Canada Complaint monitoring, etc) including verification audits and paperwork reviews.- Acts as the primary on-site Food Safety & Quality Trainer- Ensures understanding, training and compliance within distribution center on key food safety and quality topics, such as: HACCP Food Safety, Allergen Management, Cross-Contamination, Audit Requirements (DC Self Audits, 3rd Party Audits, Customer Audits, Regulatory Audits, etc.), Recall Execution, Pest Control, Product Complaint Handling, Sanitation, Security Planning, Emergency Response, and Cold Chain Management. Serves as distribution center’s on-site expert resource for these topics.- Active core member of the GFS Food Safety Council, including monthly conference calls and live attendance at yearly Quality Summit to foster collaboration and share best practices.- Lead the division in collaborating with the National Food Safety and Quality Assurance team with the development and continuous improvement of food safety and quality systems where appropriate.- Supports internal audits, development of correction action plans, and ensures compliance with stakeholders.- Acts as regulatory, customer and 3rd party audit host, including development of corrective actions plans when applicable.- Leads execution of Chain Customer expectations, supports compliance monitoring and development of corrective action plans when necessary.- Leads Divisional response to emergency Food Safety Issues. Uses critical thinking and technical expertise to provide recommendations and action plans to issue resolution.- Assists the National Food Safety and Quality Assurance team with the execution of recalls and subsequent follow-up and acts as primary liaison with regulatory agencies during divisional recall effectiveness checks.- Manages the distribution center’s Pest Control Program, including maintaining a relationship with the contract pest control firm and performing ongoing internal inspections.- Provides timely communications to divisional staff and leadership on urgent matters and regular updates on routine activities; immediately escalates quality and food safety system non-compliance and significant challenges to leadership and the National Food Safety and Quality Assurance team to minimize exposure and risk to GFS, customers, and consumers.- Establishes and leads a divisional food safety committee to ensure food safety initiatives are implemented, continuous improvement opportunities are identified, and training is executed to satisfy third party audit requirements.- Performs other duties as assigned.

HEALTH AND SAFETY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Responsible for the management of all day to day health, safety, and environmental related functions- Ensure compliance with all federal and provincial HSE requirements- Maintain current on HSE legislation changes- Monitors effectiveness of training by auditing employee knowledge, observing employee behavior and tracking incidents- Tracks training completion utilizing the learning management system and provides reporting on training completion to employee and supervisor- Conducts and tr