Job Description

Who we are

Based out of Montreal, Canada, Nature’s Touch is one of the largest suppliers of frozen fruit to retailers in North America, Australia, Taiwan, and Japan. We provide a full range of products and support multiple private label programs in addition to our own brands. We are also one of the largest buyers of fruit globally each year and continue to enjoy strong growth in this emerging category in retail.

The Role

Reporting to the VP of Global Food Safety and Quality Assurance, the Corporate Food Safety and Compliance Manager is responsible for establishing the high-level standards of the programs related to ingredient suppliers. He / She works in direct partnership with the suppliers to ensure they meet Nature’s Touch expectations.

The person in charge must be hard-working, available to travel around the world, proactive, and well-organized. He / she must not be afraid to roll up his / her sleeves and work closely with all departments in the organization in a highly collaborative atmosphere of continuous improvement.

The Corporate Food Safety and Compliance Manager’s responsibilities include :

• Leads the team related to the ingredient’s suppliers.
• Assesses the ingredient suppliers and provides the food safety approval or rejection.
• Ability to make hard decisions.
• Establishes the high-level standards that suppliers must respect to ensure food safety.
• Works in a direct partnership with them, ensuring proper execution.
• Communicates easily and effectively with all levels of the organization, from the top to the bottom, as well as with the various departments.
• Committed to offering great customer service, both internal and external, to meet critical timelines.
• Visits and audits the ingredients suppliers worldwide to certify food safety and integrity compliance with Nature’s Touch and the certification requirements in place. Follows up with the suppliers to confirm that food safety and integrity gaps are mitigated. Estimated 10-20% in travel time. It could be 1 to 2 weeks in a row to optimize travel in a region.
• Sets and continuously optimizes the relevant KPIs to demonstrate the performance of the ingredients supplier’s department. Takes the proper actions to improve and raise the goals to demonstrate how Nature’s Touch leads this industry.
• Ensures all the related documentation is always up to date.
• Gets involved in the assessment of the investigations, root cause analysis, and corrective and preventative actions taken by the suppliers to avoid the reoccurrence of the issues.
• Generates rejection letters when a lot does not comply with the specifications.
• Acts proactively with the ingredients suppliers to mitigate any food safety issues.
• Identifies the criteria to be considered in doing a thorough risk assessment to provide safe food.
• Adjust the ingredients sampling plan along with the risk assessment to ensure safe food.
• Supports the plants or any other departments when an investigation that involves ingredients is required.
• Shares his / her expertise with our fresh-to-frozen process plants.
• Stays at the forefront of new technologies, developments, and scientific discoveries related to fresh and frozen businesses by monitoring relevant industry articles.
• Contributes to the relevant initiatives of AFFI (American Frozen Foods Institute).

Position Requirements

University degree in Food Science, Microbiology, or equivalent.

Minimum 5 years experience in supervising a team.

Suppliers' approval experience in food, pharmaceutical, or cosmetics.

Food safety experience in a ready-to-eat environment is a plus.

Highly autonomous, proactive, efficient thought process, creative and initiative, organized, structured, rigorous, analytical, resourceful, meticulous, good analytical skills, respect for confidentiality.

Good time-management, prioritization, and priority-setting skills.

Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office.

Strong communication skills (written and verbal) in English.

Requirements :

Work Permit