I'm Amanda Kehres and I am the quality assurance

manager at Graeter's Manufacturing in

Cincinnati Ohio. It's really easy to take for

granted the fact that our future shows up at the

grocery store ready for us to consume. You assume

that it's safe.

The food scientists and chemists and

microbiologists that do all the testing for all

the safety and quality of our products are kind of

the front line against illness and negative

effects that could come from the consumption of

tainted products. On a day-to-day basis I am

responsible for making sure the quality of the

products that we produced - frozen desserts, ice

cream, sorbet, gelatos, are all up to the quality

that all of our customers expect. So that means the

consistency of our ice cream, that means making

sure that it is safe chemically and

bacteriologically whether it be Ecoli, Listeria,

Salmonella, any of those different types of

bacteria can be present in a food facility and it

takes a lot of attention to detail for your

sanitation and your validation of all your

cleaning procedures.

One type of testing that I do is what's called ATP

testing. It's a very quick way to look for bacteria.

Most manufacturing facilities whether it be

Pharma or food manufacturing or anything

along those lines are going to use the ATP. For

example I do a lot of this testing on hands just to

make sure that our employees are keeping

clean hands.

We also look for general bacteria out in the

environment, out in the plant. I'm following up

in certain areas and swabing looking for

bacteria. There are definitely a lot of

aspects to be a quality manager. I do spend my

time going back and forth both on the manufacturing

floor to build a high rapport with all of the

ice cream technicians but also coming in and making

sure that all of our records are in place so

all of our chart recorders that prove that we're

pasteurizing the dairy mix up to the proper

specifications as well as any forms that we may or

may not need to fill out. We are required to have a

paper trail for nearly everything that we do.

We are regulated under the ODA which is the Ohio

Department of Agriculture,their dairy

division. We operate for production four days a

week 24 hours so the demand for our product is

very high. There is a set recipe we need to make

sure that we're following that recipe. We

manufacture all of our ice cream in small batches. So

we have 32 French pots down on our manufacturing

floor.

A lot of times I'm actually down there

helping the guys make ice cream. That's just giving

me an opportunity to see things through their eyes

and to get exposure to every different task that

goes into making our ice cream so that I'm aware

and involved and can investigate any sort of

quality,defect, or issue that may pop up. One of

the major responsibilities as a food scientist and a

quality professional is to be aware so that if

anything pops up like a red flag, you're able to

notify your boss. This way if we need to issue a

recall or a halt in production we can do so

quickly and efficiently.

Fortunately we've never had to issue a recall but

we do run recall drills to ensure that our staff

knows what they need to do in the event of recall.

In most science careers you need at least a

bachelor's. There are a lot of certifications

depending on what type of Science degree you have.

For example I have a certification as a

registered microbiologist concerning food. It was

through ASM which is the American Society for

Microbiologists. Originally when I set out

to get a biology degree I intended to work more in

the health care industry.

When I graduated my first job offer happened to be

at John Morrell testing meats. It definitely was

really a life-changing experience getting to see

how important and how thorough all of the food

that we consume is tested was really eye-opening. If

you're unsure of what science or what type of

food science you want to be in I recommend going in

labs and getting some hands-on experience. I

believe the internships and the hands-on in any

lab that you can get into is extremely important. It

shows that you are competent. In high school

I would definitely focus on all of the math

courses, any science course that you can get

into - anatomy and physical science,

chemistry, anything like that to give you exposure

so that you know what you like to do.

It's really impressive and kind of mind blowing how

much food safety has grown in the past few years. The

Food Safety Modernization Act is really bringing a

whole new awareness to the food safety industry so as

a quality manager or food scientist you're just

realizing the sheer importance of your role as

it relates to people in their everyday life.