Associate, Food Safety & Quality

Thistle; Vacaville (CA); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Thistle is seeking a Food Safety &Quality Associate in Vacaville, CA to perform standardized safety and quality checks, maintain calibrations, monitor equipment, and ensure products meet safety and quality standards.

You will collaborate with Culinary and Production QA teams, apply GMPs, support preventive controls, participate in audits and sanitation programs, and help develop internal auditing and certification processes.

Qualifications

• GMPs understanding and implementation.
• Train teams on food safety and quality control procedures.
• Familiar with preventive controls and allergen labeling.

Responsibilities

• Follow and implement GMPs.
• Train receiving teams on food safety and quality control procedures.
• Support QA checks with preventive controls.
• Work with production line QCs to ensure complete and accurate record keeping.
• Assist with sanitation program and Master Sanitation Program.
• Conduct internal audits and submit audit reports.
• Calibrate critical equipment (thermometers, pH meters, scales).

Job description

TITLE: Food Safety & Quality Associate (FSQA Associate) DEPARTMENT: Quality Assurance REPORTS TO: Supervisor, Food Safety & Quality Assurance

Who We Are

Thistle makes it easy to eat well – without overthinking it. Thistle was founded in 2013 with a mission to help people get and stay healthy while improving the sustainability of our food system. Thistle delivers fully prepared, healthy-by-default meals, snacks, desserts, and organic cold-pressed juices. We believe the health of people starts with eating real, whole foods, in the right balance, without the friction. We’re building a future where nutritious, sustainable food is accessible, craveable, and part of everyday life.

About The Role

The Food Safety & Quality Associate is responsible for performing standardized food safety and quality control checks to ensure that the products meet the required legal and company standards for safety and quality. This role is required to maintain calibrations, monitor equipment, check product integrity, and identify areas for quality control improvement.

How You’ll Make a Difference

• Follow and implement Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).
• Train receiving teams on food safety and quality control procedures.
• Support Culinary QCs/leads in day-to-day food safety quality checks in adherence to preventive controls.
• Work closely with production line QCs/leads to ensure complete and accurate record keeping.
• Support production QCs/leads in day-to-day food safety quality checks and in adherence to preventive controls.
• Train production teams on food safety and quality control procedures.
• Assist with training, instruction, and support on all manufacturing equipment.
• Work closely with the sanitation team to implement the Master Sanitation Program
• Verify adherence to Preventive Controls, Processing Parameters, CCPs, Allergen, and Sanitation programs
• Ensure Quality Management Systems and Food Safety programs comply with the regulatory requirements and 3rd party food safety standards (local, state, federal, GMP, SQF)
• Ensure allergen program, allergen declaration per recipe, and labeling requirements are met
• Conduct internal audits to monitor food safety quality, processes, facilities, and quality systems.
• Submit complete and accurate audit reports within established timelines.
• Monitor and verify day-to-day QA and Food Safety records.
• Help build out an internal auditing process & certification program.
• Conduct pre-operational line inspections and residual swabs.
• Calibrate critical equipment- thermometers, pH meters, scales, etc.
• Oversee Sanitation and environmental testing program.
• Additional duties that may be assigned