Head - Quality Assurance & Food Safety - Biscuit/Bakery Industry

1. Job Purpose:

To lead the overall Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Food Safety functions across biscuit manufacturing operations, ensuring consistent product quality, food safety compliance, regulatory adherence, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement throughout the manufacturing process, from raw material procurement to finished product dispatch.

2. Key Responsibilities:

A. Quality Assurance & Quality Control:

- Develop, implement, and maintain the Quality Management System (QMS) across all manufacturing operations.

- Establish quality standards, specifications, and acceptance criteria for raw materials, packaging materials, work-in-progress, and finished products.

- Monitor quality at all stages of biscuit manufacturing, including mixing, dough preparation, moulding, baking, cooling, cream preparation, sandwiching, and packaging.

- Ensure compliance with product parameters such as moisture, texture, colour, weight, dimensions, taste, aroma, and overall product consistency.

- Drive process control, defect reduction, rejection control, and right-first-time manufacturing.

- Establish and monitor quality KPIs, including customer complaints, internal rejection, process deviations, and product non-conformance.

B. Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance:

- Ensure compliance with applicable FSSAI regulations, food safety standards, labelling requirements, and other relevant statutory requirements.

- Implement and maintain HACCP, GMP, GHP, sanitation, allergen management, pest control, and food defence programmes.

- Lead implementation and maintenance of applicable certification systems such as ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, BRCGS, and ISO 9001, as required by the organisation.

- Ensure proper control of allergens, foreign bodies, chemical hazards, microbiological risks, and cross-contamination.

- Monitor compliance with food safety requirements for ingredients such as wheat flour, edible oils and fats, sugar, milk solids, cocoa, flavours, and other additives.

- Ensure traceability, mock recalls, product recall preparedness, and effective corrective and preventive actions.

C. Raw Material & Supplier Quality:

- Approve and evaluate suppliers in coordination with procurement and supply chain teams.

- Establish raw material specifications and inspection protocols for flour, sugar, fats, emulsifiers, leavening agents, flavours, fillings, and packaging materials.

- Monitor supplier performance, incoming material rejection, certificates of analysis, and supplier corrective actions.

- Conduct supplier audits and implement supplier quality improvement programmes.

D. Manufacturing Process & Product Quality:

- Work closely with Production, R&D, Engineering, and Supply Chain teams to improve process capability and product consistency.

- Monitor critical process parameters such as dough temperature, mixing time, dough consistency, oven temperature, baking time, moisture, and cooling conditions.

- Establish control limits for biscuit weight, thickness, colour, breakage, texture, and moisture.

- Reduce over-baking, under-baking, breakage, uneven colour, excessive moisture, rancidity, filling defects, and packaging-related quality issues.

- Support new product development, product trials, process validation, and commercial-scale product launches.

- Ensure shelf-life studies, product stability assessments, and packaging compatibility evaluations are conducted.

E. Laboratory Management:

- Oversee physical, chemical, microbiological, and sensory testing of raw materials, in-process samples, and finished products.

- Ensure calibration and maintenance of laboratory equipment and testing instruments.

- Establish laboratory testing procedures, sampling plans, and reporting systems.

- Ensure the reliability of test results and compliance with approved product specifications.

- Coordinate with external accredited laboratories whenever required.

F. Packaging Quality & Shelf-Life Management:

- Ensure packaging materials meet approved specifications for food contact, print quality, sealing performance, barrier properties, and product protection.

- Monitor packaging integrity, seal quality, coding, batch identification, net weight, and label compliance.

- Control oxygen and moisture ingress to protect biscuit crispness, flavour, and shelf life.

- Investigate packaging failures, product deterioration, rancidity, and shelf-life complaints.

G. Audits, Customer Complaints & CAPA:

- Lead internal audits, external certification audits, regulatory inspections, and customer audits.

- Investigate customer complaints, identify root causes, and implement corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).

- Ensure timely closure of audit non-conformities and verification of corrective actions.

- Maintain quality documentation, SOPs, inspection records, audit reports, and management review inputs.

- Lead product withdrawal or recall activities in coordination with relevant departments, whenever necessary.

H. Team Leadership & Continuous Improvement:

- Lead, train, and develop QA/QC managers, executives, laboratory personnel, and quality inspectors.

- Establish quality awareness and food safety culture across the organisation.

- Conduct regular training on GMP, hygiene, HACCP, allergen control, and product quality requirements.

- Drive continuous improvement initiatives using root-cause analysis, CAPA, statistical process control, and Lean/Six Sigma tools where appropriate.

- Prepare and manage the quality department budget, manpower planning, and laboratory resource requirements.

- Report quality performance, risks, improvement plans, and compliance status to senior management.

3. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

- Reduction in customer complaints and market returns.

- Reduction in internal rejection, rework, and product wastage.

- Compliance with raw material and finished product specifications.

- Food safety incidents and critical non-conformities.

- Audit scores and timely closure of audit observations.

- Supplier quality performance and incoming material rejection rates.

- Product recall and traceability effectiveness.

- On-time completion of CAPA and complaint investigations.

- Improvement in process capability and product consistency.

- Compliance with product release and regulatory requirements.

4. Educational Qualifications:

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Dairy Technology, Microbiology, Chemistry, or a related discipline.

- Relevant food safety and quality certifications such as HACCP, ISO 22000/FSSC 22000, internal auditor, or lead auditor qualifications are desirable.

- Knowledge of applicable FSSAI requirements and food manufacturing regulations.

5. Experience:

- Typically 15 - 20 years of experience in Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Food Safety within the food manufacturing industry.

- At least 5 years in a senior managerial or leadership role.

- Experience in biscuit, cookies, crackers, bakery, or other FMCG food manufacturing is strongly preferred.

- Demonstrated experience in certification audits, customer audits, supplier quality, laboratory management, product complaints, and food safety systems.

- Experience in managing multi-line manufacturing operations or multiple plants is an advantage.

6. Required Skills & Competencies:

- Strong knowledge of biscuit manufacturing processes and quality parameters.

- Expertise in HACCP, GMP, GHP, CAPA, root-cause analysis, and risk assessment.

- Working knowledge of food safety legislation, product labelling, and certification standards.

- Strong analytical, problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership skills.

- Excellent communication and cross-functional coordination abilities.

- Ability to manage audits, customer escalations, and critical food safety incidents.

- Proficiency in quality documentation, data analysis, and performance reporting.

7. Key Interfaces:

- Production and Manufacturing

- Research & Development / Product Development

- Procurement and Supplier Development

- Engineering and Maintenance

- Warehouse and Supply Chain

- Sales and Customer Service

- Regulatory Affairs and Senior Management

Overall Accountability:

To ensure that every biscuit manufactured and released meets the organisation's quality standards, food safety requirements, regulatory obligations, customer expectations, and approved shelf-life specifications.