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.