Manager Food Safety & Quality Assurance

Manager Food Safety & Quality Assurance

Company: ReeferON Supply Chain Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Location: Thane, Maharashtra

Function: Food Safety, Quality & Compliance

Reporting To: Head Operations / Business Head

Experience: 6–10 Years

Industry: Food Service / QSR / Cold Chain / 3PL / Supply Chain

1. Role Purpose

The Manager – Food Safety & Quality Assurance will be responsible for establishing and driving food safety, quality and hygiene standards across ReeferON’s cold-chain warehousing, transportation and distribution operations.

The role will ensure that food products are handled, stored, transported and delivered in compliance with FSSAI, HACCP, GMP, GHP, customer-specific standards and ReeferON SOPs.

The position will work closely with Operations, Warehouse, Transport, Customers and Vendors to ensure end-to-end cold-chain integrity, product quality, food safety and regulatory compliance.

2. Key Responsibilities

A. Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance

* Develop, implement and maintain Food Safety Management Systems across ReeferON operations.

* Ensure compliance with applicable FSSAI regulations, HACCP, GMP and GHP requirements.

* Establish food-safety standards for warehouses, cold rooms, vehicles and distribution operations.

* Maintain food-safety documentation, SOPs, checklists and compliance records.

* Identify food-safety risks and establish appropriate preventive controls.

* Ensure effective controls for hygiene, contamination prevention, product segregation and personal hygiene.

B. Cold Chain & Warehouse Quality

* Establish quality standards for inward, storage, picking, staging, loading, transportation and delivery.

* Ensure adherence to defined temperature ranges for frozen, chilled and ambient products.

* Monitor temperature control across cold rooms, reefer vehicles and distribution operations.

* Investigate temperature excursions and drive corrective/preventive actions.

* Ensure FEFO/FIFO, shelf-life, batch/lot traceability and product segregation.

* Monitor product handling, packaging integrity, damages, leakage, contamination and expiry risks.

* Establish hygiene and sanitation standards across warehouses and vehicles.

* Monitor pest-control, cleaning and sanitation compliance.

C. Quality Audits & Compliance

* Develop and execute an annual/monthly Food Safety & Quality Audit Plan.

* Conduct internal audits of warehouses, cold rooms, vehicles and operating locations.

* Conduct periodic hygiene and process compliance audits.

* Support customer, regulatory and third-party audits.

* Identify Critical/Major/Minor non-conformities and ensure timely closure.

* Track audit scores and recurring observations across locations.

* Drive CAPA and Root Cause Analysis (RCA).

D. Customer Quality & Food Safety

* Act as the key Food Safety & Quality interface for ReeferON customers.

* Understand and implement customer-specific quality and food-safety requirements.

* Participate in customer reviews, audits and quality improvement initiatives.

* Monitor customer complaints related to product quality, temperature, handling and hygiene.

* Drive timely RCA and CAPA for customer complaints.

* Develop customer-wise quality scorecards and compliance dashboards.

E. Incident, Complaint & Recall Management

* Lead investigation of food-safety, product-quality and cold-chain incidents.

* Conduct structured Root Cause Analysis for major incidents.

* Implement and monitor CAPA.

* Establish procedures for product withdrawal, recall and incident escalation.

* Maintain batch/lot-level traceability to support effective recalls.

* Conduct periodic mock recall/traceability exercises.

* Analyse complaint trends and identify recurring root causes.

F. Training & Capability Building

* Develop and conduct regular training programmes for warehouse and transport teams.

* Train employees on:

* Food safety

* Personal hygiene

* GMP/GHP

* Cold-chain handling

* Temperature monitoring

* FEFO/FIFO

* Product handling

* Cleaning & sanitation

* Pest-control practices

* Incident reporting

* Maintain training records and assess effectiveness.

* Build a strong food-safety culture across ReeferON operations.

G. Vendor & Partner Quality

* Establish quality and food-safety standards for relevant vendors and service partners.

* Support vendor qualification and periodic performance assessment.

* Conduct audits of critical vendors/service partners where required.

* Monitor vendor compliance and drive corrective actions.

* Develop vendor quality scorecards.

H. Continuous Improvement

* Identify opportunities to reduce:

* Product wastage

* Expiry losses

* Temperature excursions

* Product damages

* Customer complaints

* Quality rejections

* Analyse quality data and identify trends.

* Drive standardisation of SOPs and quality controls across locations.

* Work with Operations to improve processes without compromising food safety.

* Implement best practices across ReeferON’s network.

3. Key Performance Indicators

KPI Key Measure

Food Safety Compliance 95% audit compliance

Critical Food Safety NCs Zero critical violations

CAPA Closure 95% within agreed timelines

Temperature Excursions Continuous reduction

FEFO/FIFO Compliance 98%

Customer Complaints Reduction in repeat quality complaints

Product Damage Reduction in quality-related damages

Expiry/Wastage Reduction in expiry-related losses

Warehouse Hygiene 95% compliance

Vehicle Hygiene 95% compliance

Audit Score Location-wise monthly score

Training Compliance 100% planned coverage

Traceability 100% batch/lot traceability

Mock Recall Successful completion within defined timeline

4. Qualifications

* Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in:

* Food Technology

* Food Science

* Microbiology

* Dairy Technology

* Biotechnology

* or a related discipline.

* HACCP / Food Safety / ISO 22000 certification preferred.

* FSSAI Food Safety Supervisor certification will be an advantage.

5. Experience

6–10 years of relevant experience, preferably in:

* Food Service / QSR

* Cold Chain

* Frozen & Chilled Foods

* FMCG / Food Distribution

* Food Warehousing

* Dairy

* 3PL / Contract Logistics

* Quick Commerce / Food Distribution

Experience in cold-chain warehousing and distribution will be strongly preferred.

6. Core Competencies

* Food Safety & Quality Management

* HACCP / GMP / GHP

* FSSAI compliance

* Cold-chain management

* Warehouse & transportation quality

* Audit management

* RCA & CAPA

* Customer complaint management

* Food-safety risk assessment

* Vendor quality management

* SOP development

* Data analysis and reporting

* Training & team management

* Strong stakeholder management

7. Role Expectations

The candidate should be a hands-on Food Safety & Quality professional capable of working closely with ReeferON’s warehouse and transport operations.

The role requires the individual to identify risks proactively, challenge non-compliant practices, drive corrective action and ensure sustainable implementation across the operating network.

Interested candidates kindly send us your resume on vinod.shriram@reeferon.com

Regards,

Vinod