Primary Products Assurance and Inspection Officer

Aussie Fresh Produce Group Pty Ltd is a wholesale fresh produce merchant trading from Sydney Markets at Homebush West, the largest fresh produce market in Australia and the point through which a very large share of the fruit and vegetables eaten in New South Wales passes every day. We take consignments direct from growers and packers around the country and sell them on to greengrocers, independent supermarkets, food service buyers, market retailers and secondary wholesalers, handling lines from carrots, potatoes, onions and pumpkins through brassicas, capsicum, tomatoes and lettuce to citrus and seasonal fruit, in bulk cartons, bins and pre-packed formats. We are now looking to fill the position of Primary Products Assurance and Inspection Officer on a full-time basis, and it will suit someone exacting about standards who is comfortable making a call on a load with the clock running.

Aussie Fresh Produce Group Pty Ltd | Sydney Markets, Homebush West, NSW

Key Responsibilities

• Carry out independent assurance inspections of the fruit and vegetable consignments arriving on our floor, identifying quality, condition and handling issues that affect saleability, shelf life or food safety, and putting the findings to the Director and to the grower concerned.

• Examine incoming produce, including imported lines, together with the vehicles, pallets and cartons carrying it, for biosecurity risks such as soil, plant debris, live insects, pests and unapproved packaging, and issue directions to isolate, quarantine, clean or turn away anything that presents a risk.

• Draw representative samples across each lot and complete documented technical checks covering maturity, firmness, colour, sizing, count, net weight against the declared pack and freedom from foreign matter, using the results for assurance decisions and trend analysis rather than routine production-line sorting.

• Verify that the hygiene, cleaning, chemical storage, waste handling and personal hygiene requirements set out in our food safety programme are genuinely being met in the cool rooms, on the trading floor, in the pre-pack area and in the vehicles collecting from us.

• Advise growers and suppliers on what pest, disease and post-harvest problems in their consignments are costing them in rejected cartons, reduced returns and lost customer confidence, and on the handling, treatment or packing changes that would correct them.

• Develop, implement and keep current the written quality and food safety procedures governing how produce is received, held, repacked and dispatched here, and revise them whenever a line, supplier or customer requirement changes.

• Place on hold, quarantine or recommend the non-release of any lot failing to meet documented temperature, food safety, labelling or customer requirements, and give the Director a written recommendation on its disposition.

• Advise our staff and our suppliers on identifying the pests, diseases and physiological disorders showing up in fresh produce, and on the regulatory and customer requirements applying to the grading, packing, labelling and loading of the lines we trade.

• Monitor cold chain performance from arrival through to dispatch, taking in delivery temperatures, cool room set points and the condition of loads leaving the stand, and act on any excursion that puts shelf life or safety at risk.

• Audit our own procedures and the practices of the packing and dispatch team on a planned cycle, record what was checked and what was found, and follow every finding through until it is properly closed out.

• Inform customers, staff and, where a matter reaches them, members of the buying public of the health and food safety implications of contamination, chemical residue, decay or other impurities found in produce, and of the action taken in response.

• Check country of origin labelling, lot coding, net weight declarations and pack presentation on grower-packed cartons and on our own pre-packed lines before they are released for sale.

• Maintain lot-level traceability from the grower consignment through to the customer invoice, so that any line we have sold can be traced back and withdrawn within the timeframes our programme requires.

• Investigate customer complaints, rejected deliveries and internal non-conformances, establish the underlying cause rather than the symptom, and issue corrective and preventive actions to those responsible.

• Assess the assurance documentation supplied by growers and packers, including food safety certification, chemical use and residue declarations and treatment certificates, and chase whatever is missing or out of date before further consignments are taken.

• Analyse inspection and rejection data by grower, line and season, and report the trends to the Director with recommendations on supplier performance, buying decisions and the procedures that need to change.

• Train floor, pre-pack and dispatch staff in our documented handling, hygiene, contamination prevention, cold chain and traceability requirements, and keep the training record up to date.

• Keep the inspection registers, hold and quarantine forms, temperature logs, corrective action reports and audit files that make up our food safety and quality records, ready for a customer or regulatory audit at any time.

• Assist the Director in responding to regulatory inspections and formal compliance matters, preparing the inspection findings, photographs and traceability evidence needed to support a claim against a supplier, a product withdrawal or a notification to the relevant food safety authority.

• Work with Sydney Markets management, transport operators and our buyers on any matter affecting produce integrity, biosecurity or food safety at the stand.

Qualifications and Experience

• At least one year of relevant experience in fresh produce inspection, quality assurance, food safety or a comparable primary products compliance role.

• An AQF Associate Degree, Advanced Diploma or Diploma.

Hours: 38 hours per week - Full-time

Salary: $75,000 to $85,000 plus superannuation per annum

Personal Attributes

• Methodical and exact, with the judgement to tell a systemic problem from a one-off.

• Prepared to hold a standard under pressure, including when a load is waiting to leave.

• A clear communicator who can put a finding to a grower, a buyer and a forklift operator alike.

• Reliable and self-directed, and comfortable with the early starts a market floor runs on.

How to Apply

If this sounds like you, we would like to hear from you. Please send through your resume with a covering letter addressing the responsibilities and requirements set out above as its first page.